he said: “I prayed behind Ibn ʿAbbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) at a funeral. He recited the Opening Chapter of the Book together with a surah, raising his voice so that we could hear him. When he finished, I took him by the hand and asked him about it, and he replied, ‘It is the Sunnah and it is the truth.’

Imam al-Shafiʿi also related the same incident in his Musnad, but without mentioning the surah. He said: “Ibrahim ibn Saʿd narrated to us, from his father, from Talha ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAwf, who said: I prayed behind Ibn ʿAbbas (may Allah be pleased with them) at a funeral, and he recited the Opening Chapter of the Book. When he gave the final salutation I asked him about it, and he replied, ‘It is the Sunnah and it is the truth.’ ” Its chain is sound according to the criteria of al-Bukhari.

This, then, is the version reliably preserved from Ibn ʿAbbas: there is no mention of a surah. The same wording was transmitted by Shuʿbah and Sufyan from Saʿd ibn Ibrahim, likewise without mentioning a surah. Shuʿbah’s report was collected by al-Bukhari and al-Nasaʾi, while Sufyan’s was collected by al-Bukhari, Abu Dawud, and al-Tirmidhi, who said, “This is a sound, well-authenticated hadith.”

Al-Bayhaqi said, “The mention of a surah is not reliably preserved.” I say: what I have cited here supports his assessment, and it is further supported by what al-Shafiʿi relates in his Musnad: “Ibn ʿUyaynah narrated to us, from Muhammad ibn ʿAjlan, from Saʿid ibn Abi Saʿid, who said: I heard Ibn ʿAbbas recite the Opening Chapter of the Book aloud in the funeral prayer and say, ‘I only did that so that you would know it is Sunnah.’ ”

Al-Hakim likewise recorded it in his al-Mustadrak through Ibn Abi ʿUmar, from Sufyan ibn ʿUyaynah, and declared, “This hadith is authentic according to the conditions of Muslim,” a judgment with which al-Dhahabi concurred in his abridgment. Al-Hakim added: “The scholars are unanimous that when a Companion says, ‘It is Sunnah,’ his statement counts as a connected hadith.”

Al-Shafiʿi also said: “Some of our companions informed us, from Layth ibn Saʿd, from al-Zuhri, from Abu Umamah—that is, Ibn Sahl ibn Hunayf—who said: ‘The Sunnah is to recite the Opening Chapter of the Book over the funeral.’ ” Al-Nasaʾi likewise recorded it.