in the narration recorded by al-Athram (1): “And this (2), in my judgment, is fabricated.” Al-Khallāl cited it in al-‘Ilal (Defects).
Ibrāhīm al-Hajarī said: “‘Abd Allāh ibn Abī Awfā (3) led us in the funeral prayer for his daughter. He said ‘Allah is the Greatest’ four times, then paused for a while, until we thought he would say it a fifth time. Then he gave the salutation of peace to his right and to his left. When he finished, we asked him (4), ‘What was that?’ He replied, ‘I do no more for you than what I saw the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, do,’ or, ‘This is how the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, did it’ (5).”
Ibn Mas‘ūd (6) said: “There are three practices that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, used to observe which people have abandoned. One of them is giving the salutation of peace in the funeral prayer as in the regular prayer.” Al-Bayhaqī cited both reports.
(1) Recorded by al-Khatīb together with the aforementioned hadith.
(2) The wāw (“and”) before hādhā (“this”) comes from Q, M, and Mb.
(3) The printed editions read: “‘Abd Allāh ibn Abī Awfā told us that he had prayed.” This is an alteration introduced by some copyists.
(4) Lahu (“to him”) is omitted in S.
(5) Recorded by al-Bayhaqī (3:43). Its chain includes Ibrāhīm al-Hajarī, who has some weakness and attributes mawqūf reports (reports stopping at a Companion) to the Prophet. It also includes Muhammad ibn Maslama al-Wāsitī, concerning whom al-Khatīb said in Tārīkh Baghdād (4:490): “His narrations contain objectionable reports with clear chains of transmission.” See also Lisān al-Mīzān (7:507–509). He is responsible for the defective addition, “to his right and to his left.” This addition is absent from the reports transmitted from al-Hajarī by his pupils, including al-Thawrī [al-Humaydī (735)], Shu‘ba [Ibn al-Ja‘d (626) and al-Bazzār (3355)], Abū Mu‘āwiya [Ibn Abī Shayba (11558)], ‘Abd al-Rahmān al-Muhāribī [Ibn Mājah (1503)], Sharīk [Ma‘ānī al-Āthār (1:495), through Abū Nu‘aym from him], and others.
(6) Recorded by al-Bayhaqī (4:43) and al-Tabarānī (10:82). Its chain includes Yazīd ibn Khālid Abū ‘Abd al-Rahmān, whose reliability is unknown.