Among the rulings that pertain to relieving oneself is his statement under number 3: “Pronouncing the basmala aloud, based on the ḥadīth of Anas who said: Whenever the Prophet ﷺ wished to enter the lavatory he would say, ‘In the name of Allah; O Allah, I seek refuge in You from the male and female devils.’ ” He attributed this wording to all the major ḥadīth compilers.

I say: The author—may Allah protect him—has erred in ascribing the phrase “In the name of Allah” to the collective transmitters, for none of them record it. Majd ad-Dīn Ibn Taymiyyah cited the report in al-Muntaqā through the route of “the compilers” in the wording, “When he entered the lavatory he used to say, ‘O Allah…,’” and then added:

“Saʿīd ibn Manṣūr, in his Sunan, narrates that he would say: ‘In the name of Allah; O Allah, I seek refuge in You from the male and female devils.’ ”

It seems, therefore, that while copying from al-Muntaqā the author’s eye strayed to the basmala found in Saʿīd’s version, and he inserted it into the wording of the collective transmitters, although it does not belong there.

The version of the collective transmitters is documented in Irwāʾ al-Ghalīl, no. 51, Ṣaḥīḥ Abī Dāwūd, no. 3, and elsewhere.

There is another inaccuracy: the author appears to have taken liberties with the wording, for he wrote, “When he intended to enter…,” thereby adding the word “intended” on his own authority, and that is not acceptable in transmission.

As for Saʿīd’s report that includes the basmala, it is also recorded by Ibn Abī Shaybah in al-Muṣannaf 1/1 through the chain of Abū Maʿshar Nujayḥ, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Ṭalḥah, from Anas with similar wording.