146 – Abu Juḥayfah (may Allah be pleased with him) said: “I saw Bilal making the call to prayer; he would move his mouth here and there, and his two forefingers were in his ears.” Reported by Ahmad and al-Tirmidhi, who declared it authentic.

Ibn Mājah relates: “and he put his two fingers in his ears.”

Abu Dāwūd adds: “When he reached ‘Ḥayya ʿala ṣ-ṣalāh,’ he bent his neck to the right and to the left without turning completely around.”⦗1⦘ The basic narration is found in the two Ṣaḥīḥs.⦗2⦘

Degree of authenticity
The ḥadith is sound. It was transmitted by Ahmad, al-Tirmidhi, and al-Ḥākim (1/399). Al-Tirmidhi said: “good and sound,” while al-Ḥākim judged it “authentic according to the criteria of the two Shaykhs,” and al-Dhahabi concurred. Ibn Khuzaymah and Abu ʿAwanah likewise declared this wording authentic.

As for the report in Ibn Mājah, its chain includes Ḥajjāj ibn Arṭāh, who is not relied upon.

Regarding the phrase “without turning completely around,” al-Bayhaqi stated that it is not established through a sound chain, for all routes go back to Sufyān al-Thawri, who did not hear it directly from ʿAwn; rather, he related it from an unnamed man thought to be Ḥajjāj—and Ḥajjāj is not dependable.

Vocabulary notes
– “His mouth” (fāh): the Arabic word for mouth; its plural is afwāh. The form fū is one of the five exceptional nouns that take a wāw in the nominative case,