As for the hadith of Ibn ʿAbbās (1), “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ would glance to the right and left during prayer without turning his head to look behind him,” this hadith is not established. Al-Tirmidhī said of it, “A singular hadith,” and added nothing further.
Al-Khallāl said: Al-Maymūnī informed me that Abū ʿAbd Allāh was told that some people had transmitted, with a chain of narration, that the Prophet ﷺ would glance sideways during prayer. He rejected this so vehemently that his expression changed, his complexion altered, and his body moved. I saw him in a state unlike any other I had ever seen him in (2). He said, “The Prophet ﷺ would glance sideways during prayer?!”—meaning that he rejected this. I think he said, “It has no chain of narration.” He also said, “Who narrated this? This report comes only (3) from Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib (4).” Then some of our companions told me that Abū ʿAbd Allāh had judged Saʿīd’s hadith to be weak
(1) Recorded by al-Tirmidhī (587), al-Nasā’ī in al-Kubrā (534), Ibn Khuzayma (485), Ibn Hibbān (2288), al-Tabarānī (11/223), al-Dāraqutnī (1865), al-Hākim (1/236), and al-Bayhaqī (2/13), all through al-Fadl ibn Mūsā, from ‘Abd Allāh ibn Sa‘īd ibn Abī Hind, from ‘Ikrima, from Ibn ‘Abbās. Al-Tirmidhī, al-Dāraqutnī, and al-Bayhaqī identified a defect in it: only al-Fadl ibn Mūsā transmitted it with a connected chain to the Prophet. Wakī‘ differed from him, transmitting it from ‘Abd Allāh ibn Sa‘īd ibn Abī Hind, from some of ‘Ikrima’s companions, from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, as a mursal report (with an interrupted chain). This version was recorded by al-Tirmidhī (588), al-Dāraqutnī (1865), and al-Bayhaqī (2/13). In Abū al-Tayyib al-Ushnānī’s transmission, Abū Dāwūd judged the mursal version more authentic (Tuhfat al-Ashrāf, 5/117). Al-Dāraqutnī stated in Su’ālāt al-Barqānī (p. 76) that al-Fadl’s report was not authentic. See al-‘Ilal al-Kabīr (p. 104), Nasb al-Rāya (2/89–90), and Ibn Rajab’s Fath al-Bārī (4/317–318).
(2) This is the reading in all the manuscripts and early editions. The al-Risāla edition reads “worse than it,” an alteration made by Shaykh al-Fiqī, may Allah have mercy on him.
(3) Innamā hādhā (“This is only”) is omitted from Sād.
(4) Ibn Abī Shayba (4584) recorded it from Hushaym, who said: “One of our companions informed me, from al-Zuhrī, from Sa‘īd ibn al-Musayyib, who said: ‘The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, would glance sideways during prayer without turning his head.’”