(1), and recite them during Hajj, which is the emblem of Allah’s oneness.
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The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) would lie down on his right side after the sunnah prayer before Fajr. This is what is authentically reported from him in the two Sahīh collections (2), in the hadith narrated by ‘Ā’ishah.
Al-Tirmidhī (3) cited a hadith narrated by Abū Hurayrah in which the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “When any of you has prayed the two units before the dawn prayer, let him lie down on his right side.” Al-Tirmidhī said: “An authentic, singular hadith.”
I heard (4) Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah—may Allah sanctify his soul—say: “This is false, not authentic. What is authentically reported from him is the practice, not a command to do so. ‘Abd al-Wāhid ibn Ziyād alone narrated this report, and he erred in it (5).” End of quotation.
Ibn Abī Shaybah (6) related from Abū al-Siddīq al-Nājī that Ibn ‘Umar saw some people
(1) Perhaps he meant the hadith of Ibn ‘Umar narrated by Ahmad (5742), al-Nasā’ī in al-Mujtabā (992) and al-Kubrā (1066), and others. Its wording is: “I observed the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) twenty-four or twenty-five times reciting Qul yā ayyuhā al-kāfirūn (Say, O disbelievers) and Qul huwa Allāhu ahad (Say, He is Allah, One) in the two prayer units before Fajr and the two after Maghrib.” The versions transmitted from Abū Ishāq differ concerning this report. Al-Albānī included it in al-Sahīhah (3328).
(2) Recorded by al-Bukhārī (626, 994, 1123, 1160, 6310) and Muslim (736).
(3) No. 420. Also recorded by Ahmad (9368), Abū Dāwūd (1261), Ibn Khuzaymah (1120), Ibn Hibbān (2468), and al-Bayhaqī (3/45). Its chain of transmission includes ‘Abd al-Wāhid ibn Ziyād, who narrated some manākīr (objectionable reports); this is one of them. See the forthcoming comment on Shaykh al-Islām’s statement.
(4) Manuscripts sād and jīm read: “fa-sami‘tu” (“so I heard”).
(5) Al-Dhahabī said in Mīzān al-i‘tidāl, in the entry on ‘Abd al-Wāhid ibn Ziyād (2/672): “… One of the well-known narrators. Al-Bukhārī and Muslim relied on him in their Sahīh collections, while avoiding the objectionable reports for which he was criticized. He narrates from al-A‘mash, using wording indicating direct hearing, from Abū Sālih, from Abū Hurayrah, who said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said, ‘When any of you has prayed the two prayer units before dawn, let him lie down on his right side …’”
(6) No. 6455. Also recorded by al-Bayhaqī (3/46). Its chain includes Zayd al-‘Ammī, who is Ibn al-Hawārī, a weak narrator.