Among these criticisms is what Abū Zurʿah said about him: “His ḥadith is worthless; he narrates objectionable reports.”

A further defect lies in his transmitter, Muḥammad ibn Sinān—known as al-Qazzāz al-Baṣrī—who is also weak, as stated in al-Taqrīb. For that reason al-Ḥāfiẓ was off the mark when he cited the report in Fatḥ 1/464 without any comment, reproducing it from Ibn Khuzaymah, Ibn Ḥibbān, and al-Bayhaqī; al-Shawkānī followed him in this (1/250), as he so often does—despite the fact that Ibn Khuzaymah himself had declared the report weak on account of the break in the chain, saying after it:

“This is a singular ḥadith; to the best of my knowledge no one has connected its isnād except Maḥbūb ibn al-Ḥasan. The companions of Dāwūd transmit it as ‘from al-Shaʿbī, from ʿĀʾishah,’ all of them except Maḥbūb ibn al-Ḥasan.”

I have, however, found for Maḥbūb a strong corroborating transmitter and a supporting narration that al-Ḥāfiẓ deemed ḥasan, so I hastened to document the ḥadith in al-Ṣaḥīḥah 2814. The two Shaykhs also relate it, through ʿUrwah from ʿĀʾishah, in abridged form:

“Prayer was first ordained as two rakʿahs, two rakʿahs, whether resident or travelling; the traveller’s prayer was left unchanged, while the resident’s prayer was increased.”
It is likewise recorded in Ṣaḥīḥ Abī Dāwūd 1082.

The author then says, after outlining the disagreement regarding shortening the prayer on a journey: “The Mālikīs hold that shortening is an emphatically recommended sunnah, more stressed than congregational prayer. If a traveller cannot find another traveller to lead him, he should pray alone in shortened form; it is disliked for him to follow a resident.”

I reply: This disapproval, besides lacking any supporting evidence, runs contrary to the Sunnah narrated by the scholar of the ummah, ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAbbās (may Allah be pleased with him). Mūsā ibn Salamah said:

“We were with Ibn ʿAbbās in Mecca, and I said to him, ‘When we are with you we pray four rakʿahs, but when we go back to our tents we pray two.’ He replied, ‘That is the Sunnah of Abū al-Qāsim ﷺ.’”