Aslam said: “We once visited Anas ibn Mālik. He asked, ‘Have you prayed?’ We replied, ‘Yes.’ He then said, ‘Girl, bring me some water for ablution. I have never prayed behind an imam whose prayer more closely resembled the prayer of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, than that of your imam today.’”
Zayd commented, “ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz used to perform the bowing and the prostration fully, while shortening the standing and the sitting.”
This ḥadīth is authentic. Concerning al-ʿAṭṭāf ibn Khālid al-Makhzūmī, Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn said on more than one occasion, “He is trustworthy.”
Imām Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal added, “He was a Meccan, reliable, and his narrations are sound; about one hundred traditions are related from him.”
Ibn ʿAdī said, “He transmits nearly a hundred reports, and I have detected no flaw in his narrations when conveyed by a trustworthy transmitter.”
Abū Dāwūd and al-Nasāʾī likewise reported—through the chain of ʿAbdullāh ibn Ibrāhīm ibn ʿUmar ibn Kaysān, who said, ‘My father related to me,’ from Wahb ibn Mānūs, who said, ‘I heard Saʿīd ibn Jubayr…’
(1) Zayd ibn Aslam al-ʿAdawi, Abu ʿAbd Allah; his father was a Medinan freedman of ʿUmar ibn al-Khattab. Ibn Hajar writes: “Reliable and learned; he transmits mursal reports; third generation.” He died in 136 AH. See: Taqrib al-Tahdhib 1:272, no. 157.
(2) Sunan al-Nasaʾi, Book of the Opening, chapter “Lightening the Standing and the Recitation,” 2:166.
(3) See Tahdhib al-Tahdhib 7:221–223, biog. no. 409, where Ahmad said, “He is one of the people of Medina.”
(4) See the same source.
(5) See the same source.
(6) The author has already given adequate information about him and about his father Ibrahim; the editor’s remarks on both make a further biography unnecessary.
(7) He is al-ʿAdani—some say al-Basri. See Tahdhib al-Tahdhib 11:166, no. 287; the editor has likewise provided what is sufficient about him.
(8) Saʿid ibn Jubayr ibn Hisham al-Asadi, their mawla, from Kufa; kunya Abu ʿAbd Allah—some say Abu Muhammad. An eminent third-generation imam, a trustworthy jurist and devout scholar. He joined Ibn al-Ashʿath’s revolt against the Umayyad governor al-Hajjaj, who executed him in 95 AH, aged forty-nine—some reports say forty-seven. See Tahdhib al-Tahdhib 4:11–14, biog. no. 14.