Among the acts that are disliked in the prayer

His statement under no. 1: “Abu Dharr reported that the Prophet ﷺ said: ‘When any of you rises for prayer, mercy faces him, so let him not wipe the pebbles.’ ” It was recorded by Aḥmad and the compilers of the Sunan.

I say: Their chains all contain Abū al-Aḥwaṣ, who is an unknown narrator.

However, al-Ṭayālisī included it in his Musnad from Abu Dharr in an abridged form: “I asked the Messenger of Allah ﷺ about everything—even about wiping the pebbles—and he said, ‘Only once.’ ” Its chain is sound.

It appears in the Musnad no. 470, yet the arranger, Shaykh ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sāʿātī, did not cite it in the proper section of Minhat al-Maʿbūd; it seems he either overlooked it or deemed the first version sufficient, for he quoted that one in 1/108. If that is what he did, it is a serious defect in the book, for it falls under the Qurʾānic censure: “Will you exchange that which is inferior for that which is better?”

He also says: “Umm Salama reported that the Prophet ﷺ said to a boy called Yasār who had blown during the prayer: ‘Tarrib wajhaka Allāh (May Allah soil your face with dust).’ ” Aḥmad narrated it with a ‘good’ chain.

I reply: No, it is not good, for Aḥmad’s chain and others include Abū Ṣāliḥ, the freedman of the family of Ṭalḥa, and he is unknown, as al-Dhahabī states; al-Ḥāfiẓ indicates that his hadith is weak. Moreover, the correct wording is “Tarrib wajhaka lillāh (May your face be soiled for Allah’s sake),” as found in the Musnad. What appears in the book is probably a typographical error, which the author fixed in the new edition, 1/268.