His statement under the heading “Safeguarding the mosques”: “Ahmad records with a sound chain that the Prophet ﷺ said, ‘When one of you spits, let him conceal his spittle lest it strike a believer’s skin or garment and offend him.’

I say: Al-Ḥāfiẓ merely graded the narration ḥasan, and that is the correct judgment, because its chain contains Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq, who has been criticized. The agreed-upon rule is that his ḥadith is considered ḥasan whenever he explicitly states that he heard it—which is the case here. The author may have deemed it ṣaḥīḥ on the strength of al-Haythamī’s remark: “It was narrated by Ahmad and Abū Yaʿlā, and its transmitters are deemed reliable.” Yet that conclusion is not compulsory, as indicated earlier.

His comment reads: “Anyone who eats it—meaning garlic and the like—must keep away from the mosque and public gatherings until its odor disappears; the same ruling applies to offensive smells such as smoke, belching, and halitosis.”

I say: Equating these cases is questionable. Halitosis and similar conditions are imposed by heaven; a person neither intends them nor earns them, nor can he remove them. How, then, can they be placed on a par with foul odors that arise from one’s deliberate action—odors he can avoid producing or can eliminate? The wise Lawgiver barred the eater of garlic and the like from entering the mosques and sharing in the merit of congregational prayer as a penalty for his indifference to the discomfort he causes the believers and the angels. Therefore, someone afflicted with chronic bad breath and the like should not be deprived of that merit, for the reason just explained.

And under the heading “The Permissibility of Eating, Drinking, and Sleeping in the Mosque” he cites: “ʿAbdullāh ibn al-Ḥārith said, ‘In the lifetime of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ we used to eat bread and meat in the mosque.’ Ibn Mājah transmitted it with a ḥasan chain.”

I say: Rather, its chain is ṣaḥīḥ. The author followed the compiler of al-Zawāʾid in grading it ḥasan, for he said: