“From Umm Salamah … that when the Prophet ﷺ left his house he would say, ‘In the name of Allah … .’ An authentic ḥadith reported by Abū Dāwūd, al-Tirmidhī and others with authentic chains.”

I say: Abū Dāwūd recorded it at the end of the “Book of Manners” through Shuʿbah, and al-Tirmidhī in the chapter “Supplications” through Sufyān; both transmit via Manṣūr → ʿĀmir al-Shaʿbī → Umm Salamah.

The remaining compilers of the Sunan also narrated it: al-Nasāʾī in “Seeking Refuge” through Jarīr and through Sufyān, and Ibn Mājah in “Supplications” through ʿUbaydah ibn Ḥumayd—each of them from Manṣūr with this very chain.

Aḥmad likewise included it (6/306, 318, 321, 322) through Shuʿbah and Sufyān, and Ibn al-Sunnī (172) through Sufyān; it appears in Mishkāt, no. 2442. Thus it is clear that Abū Dāwūd, al-Tirmidhī, and the others possess only a single chain back to Umm Salamah, for all the routes revolve around Manṣūr → ʿĀmir al-Shaʿbī → her. To assert, therefore, that they narrated it “with authentic chains” creates a misleading impression that does not match the facts.

Exactly the same is true of every forthcoming ḥadith in which he uses this expression; each has but one chain from its Companion. Their numbers are: 201, 476, 811, 825 (no. 1171 in Ṣaḥīḥ Abī Dāwūd), 891, 973 (cited in Silsilat al-Aḥādīth al-Ṣaḥīḥah 1/23), 1119, 1210, and 1655 (cited in Mishkāt 4458).

The author—may Allah have mercy on him—followed this same convention in some of his other works as well, such as al-Adhkār. See, for example, the ḥadith of Abū Ḥumayd or Abū Usayd on p. 25; the ḥadith of ʿAwf ibn Mālik on pp. 42–43; the ḥadith of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAbd al-Qārī on p. 52; the ḥadith of ʿAbdullāh ibn Khubayb on p. 63; the ḥadith of Abū Hurayrah on p. 63; the ḥadith of Thawbān on p. 65; the ḥadith of Ibn ʿUmar on p. 66; the ḥadith of Abū ʿAyyāsh on p. 67—and many others besides.

Al-Ḥāfiẓ criticised him for this in his verification of al-Adhkār, entitled Natāʾij al-Afkār, in