“…whose hearing is not hindered by another’s hearing; O You whom questions do not confuse; O You whom the persistence of the insistent and the requests of the petitioners never weary—grant me the coolness of Your pardon and the sweetness of Your mercy.”

He (the narrator) said: I asked him, “Repeat for me what you have just said.” He replied, “Did you hear it?” I said, “Yes.” He then said, “By Him in whose hand is the soul of al-Khiḍr”—and it was al-Khiḍr himself—“no servant utters these words after an obligatory prayer without Allah forgiving his sins, even were they as abundant as the foam of the sea, the leaves on the trees, and the number of the stars; Allah would still forgive him.” This report is weak on account of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥarrar, for he is abandoned in ḥadīth (1). Moreover, Yazīd ibn al-Aṣamm did not meet ʿAlī, so a narration of this sort is unsound. Allah knows best.

Abū Ismāʿīl al-Tirmidhī also transmitted it: “Mālik ibn Ismāʿīl related to us, Ṣāliḥ ibn Abī al-Aswad related to us, from Maḥfūẓ ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥaḍramī, from Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā, who said: While ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib was circumambulating the Kaʿbah he saw a man clinging to its curtains and saying, ‘O You whose hearing is not distracted by another’s hearing; O You whom the questioners do not confound; O You whom the persistence of the persistent does not weary—let me taste the coolness of Your pardon and the sweetness of Your mercy.’

ʿAlī said to him, ‘Servant of Allah, repeat that supplication of yours.’ The man asked, ‘Have you heard it?’ He replied, ‘Yes.’ The man then said, ‘Invoke it at the close of every prayer, for by Him in whose hand is the soul of al-Khiḍr, if you had sins as numerous as the stars of the sky and their rainfall, the pebbles of the earth and its dust, Allah would forgive you more swiftly than the blink of an eye.’ ” (2)

This chain, too, is disconnected, and within it are narrators who are unknown. Allah knows best.

Ibn al-Jawzī likewise cited it through the route of Abū Bakr ibn Abī al-Dunyā: “Yaʿqūb ibn Yūsuf narrated to us, Mālik ibn Ismāʿīl narrated to us,” and he mentioned something similar, then remarked, “This isnād is unknown and broken, and nothing in it indicates that the man was al-Khiḍr.”

The ḥadīth master Abū al-Qāsim Ibn ʿAsākir said: “Abū al-Qāsim ibn al-Ḥuṣayn informed us, Abū Ṭālib Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad informed us, Abū Isḥāq al-Muzakkī (3) informed us, Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq ibn Khuzaymah narrated to us, Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Yazīd dictated it to us at ʿAbbādān (4), ʿAmr ibn ʿĀṣim narrated to us, al-Ḥasan ibn Razīn (5) narrated to us, from Ibn Jurayj, from ʿAṭāʾ, from Ibn ʿAbbās—who said, and I do not know it except as a statement raised to the Prophet ﷺ:

‘Al-Khiḍr and Elijah meet every year during the season of pilgrimage. Each one shaves the head of the other, and they part after saying these words:
“In the name of Allah. Whatever Allah wills shall be…”’