who both said: Sulayk al-Ghatafānī came while the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, was delivering the sermon. He asked him, “Did you pray two units before you came?” He replied, “No.” He said, “Then pray two units, and keep them brief.” The narrators in its chain are trustworthy.
Abū al-Barakāt Ibn Taymiyyah (1) said: His words, “before you came,” indicate that these two units are a sunnah prayer associated with Friday prayer, not the prayer of greeting the mosque. Our shaykh, his grandson (2), Abū al-‘Abbās Ibn Taymiyyah (3), said: This is mistaken. The well-known hadith in the two authentic collections (4), narrated from Jābir, states: A man entered on Friday while the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, was delivering the sermon. He asked, “Have you prayed?” He replied, “No.” He said, “Then pray two units.” He also said, “When any of you comes on Friday while the imam is delivering the sermon, let him pray two units and keep them brief.” This is the reliably preserved wording of this hadith. Reports transmitted only by Ibn Mājah are generally not authentic. This is the substance of his remarks.
Our shaykh, Abū al-Hajjāj, the hadith master al-Mizzī, said: This is a textual corruption introduced by the transmitters. The wording is actually, “Did you pray before sitting down?” The copyist made an error here. He said: Ibn Mājah’s book circulated only among shaykhs who did not give it careful attention, unlike “The Authentic Collection (5) of al-Bukhārī and Muslim,” for