462 – ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Laylā said, “Zayd ibn Arqam – may Allah be pleased with him – used to pronounce four takbīrs over our funerals, but on one occasion he uttered five. I asked him about that, and he replied, ‘The Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to pronounce five.’” Narrated by Muslim and the Four (1).

It is also related from ʿAlī – may Allah be pleased with him – that “he pronounced six takbīrs over Sahl ibn Ḥunayf and said, ‘He was one of those who fought at Badr.’” Reported by Saʿīd ibn Manṣūr, and the basic wording is found in al-Bukhārī (2).

— Hadith grading:
The report is authentic.

Al-Ḥāfiẓ said in al-Talkhīṣ: al-Bukhārī recorded in his Ṣaḥīḥ from ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib that he pronounced the takbīr over Sahl ibn Ḥunayf; al-Burqānī, in his Mustakhraj, added the specification “six,” and the same wording appears in al-Bukhārī’s Tārīkh and in the compilation of Saʿīd ibn Manṣūr. Ibn Abī Khaythamah transmitted it through another chain via Yazīd ibn Abī Zinād from ʿAbdullāh ibn Maʿqil with the wording “five.”

Saʿīd ibn Manṣūr also narrated, through al-Ḥakam ibn ʿUtaybah, that he said, “They used to pronounce five, six, and seven takbīrs over those who fought at Badr.”

Al-Albānī wrote in Kitāb al-Janāʾiz: “Regarding six and seven takbīrs there are several mawqūf reports, yet they carry the weight of marfūʿ traditions, for some senior Companions practised them publicly in the presence of other Companions, and no one objected.”

The first of these is the report of ʿAbdullāh ibn Maʿqil: “That ʿAlī led the funeral prayer for Sahl ibn Ḥunayf and pronounced six takbīrs over him.”