the ḥadith of Jābir—especially since the caliphs put it into practice, as I have demonstrated in al-Ṣaḥīḥah 2076 with a treatment you will not find elsewhere, Allah willing.

Concerning the report, “When he mounted the pulpit his Companions would face him with their faces,” he writes: “It was narrated by Ibn Mājah, and although there is some criticism of it, al-Tirmidhī said: The practice is based on this … .”

I say: The ḥadith is sound, for it possesses supporting chains—both marfūʿ and mawqūf—which I have also traced in al-Ṣaḥīḥah 2080. One of those supports is in the Two Ṣaḥīḥs, where Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī said: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ sat on the pulpit and we sat around him.”

This is one of the neglected Sunan; lovers of the Sunnah should revive it—may Allah grant them life and honour, and make Paradise our and their abode by His grace and generosity.

Regarding the ḥadith of Abū Hurayrah, “Every speech that is not begun with praise of Allah is severed,” he states: “It was narrated by Abū Dāwūd and Aḥmad with this meaning.”

I reply: The ḥadith is weak. The only person who linked it to Abū Hurayrah is a narrator whose memory cannot be trusted, whereas a number of reliable transmitters reported it as mursal—even muʿḍal. Abū Dāwūd himself pointed out this defect, saying after it (4840):
“It was narrated by Yūnus, ʿUqayl, Shuʿayb, and Saʿīd ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz from al-Zuhrī, from the Prophet ﷺ, as a mursal report.”

The author should have mentioned this immediately after citing the ḥadith, in fulfilment of academic honesty. Such lapses are a consequence of blind imitation and of failing to consult the primary sources. Moreover, if he did not return to the original, why did he at least not quote what al-Shawkānī recorded in Nayl al-Awṭār 3/224—that al-Nasāʾī and al-Dāraqutnī likewise judged it to be mursal—even though it was from that very work that he took the ḥadith and its documentation, or