Allah destroyed them because of their wrongdoing and envy. Envy extinguishes the light of good deeds, and tyranny either proves that or disproves it. The eye commits zina, and so do the hand, the foot, the body, and the tongue—while the private parts either confirm it or deny it.
As for Sahl ibn Abī Umāmah, Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn and others judged him trustworthy, and Muslim and other compilers transmitted his narrations. Regarding Ibn Abī al-ʿAmyāʾ, he was from the people of Jerusalem and I do not know his exact standing; yet Abū Dāwūd’s inclusion of the ḥadīth and his silence about it indicate that, in his view, it is ḥasan, and it has supporting chains in the authentic collections.
Concerning the report’s portrayal of the Prophet’s prayer as light, the two Ṣaḥīḥs transmit from Anas ibn Mālik that he said, “The Prophet would keep the prayer brief yet complete.” They also narrate from him: “I have never prayed behind any imam whose prayer was lighter,”
(1) Ms. At reads: “Their destruction was caused by tyranny and envy,” and this is also the wording found in Sunan Abi Dawud.
(2) This is the same hadith cited above: Sunan Abi Dawud, Book of Manners, chapter “Concerning Speech,” no. 4904 (5:209–210).
(3) The word lahu (“for him”) is missing in Ms. A.
(4) As noted earlier, Ibn Hajar graded the narrator maqbul (acceptable). In Tahdhib (4:57) he adds: “Ibn Hibban listed him among the trustworthy.”
(5) The author will quote some of these reports below.
(6) Ms. A reads “the Messenger of Allah.”
(7) Reported by al-Bukhari, Book of the Call to Prayer, chapter “Brevity in Prayer while Perfecting It,” no. 706 (Fath al-Bari 2:201), and by Muslim, Book of Prayer, chapter “Instructing the Imam to Shorten the Prayer while Completing It,” no. 469 (1:342). The wording runs: “Anas reported that the Prophet used to abbreviate the prayer yet perform it perfectly,” and another version states: “The Messenger of Allah was among the people whose prayer was brief yet complete.”