He also said: “It is narrated from Abū Hurayrah that the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—declared: ‘There are no days on which worship is more beloved to Allah than the ten of Dhu l-Hijjah. Fasting each of those days equals the fast of an entire year, and standing in prayer on each of their nights equals worship on the Night of Decree.’ Al-Tirmidhī, Ibn Mājah and al-Bayhaqī related it.”

I say: Its isnād is weak. The compiler took it from al-Mundhirī’s al-Targhīb, 2/125. Although al-Mundhirī had already indicated its weakness by introducing it with the word “it is reported”—his customary signal, as he explained in his introduction—he, may Allah reward him, did not stop there. After citing the narration he set out its defect, saying:

“Al-Tirmidhī said: ‘It is gharīb; we do not know it except via the narration of Masʿūd ibn Wāṣil from al-Nuhās ibn Qahm. I asked Muḥammad’—meaning al-Bukhārī—‘about this ḥadith, and he did not know it through any route other than this one.’”

Therefore I would have preferred that the compiler had quoted al-Mundhirī’s statement in full, both in the interest of scholarly integrity and to make the weakness of the ḥadith explicit, for, first, he has not consistently adhered to the aforementioned convention, as shown in the introduction, and second, most of his readers are unlikely to be familiar with technical terminology.

I have analysed the ḥadith in detail in al-Ḍaʿīfa, 5142.

Concerning the recommendation to exchange greetings on the day of Eid he said: “From Jubayr ibn Nufayr: The Companions of the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—when they met on the day of Eid would say to one another: ‘May Allah accept from us and from you.’ Al-Ḥāfiẓ said: Its isnād is ḥasan.”

I say: When the term “al-Ḥāfiẓ” is used without qualification, the reference is to Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, yet I have not found this grading in any of his writings. Rather, I located it in al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Suyūṭī’s treatise Wuṣūl al-Amānī fī Uṣūl al-Tahānī, p. 109 of volume one of al-Ḥāw—