his private parts might be seen when he bows, so he should button it." Yaḥyā added, “This applies when he is not wearing an izār (lower garment).” Al-Bayhaqī remarked, “Although this chain is broken, it accords with the connected report cited just before it.”

A ḥadīth of Abū Hurayrah conveys the same sense: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ forbade a man to pray until he girds himself. It was recorded by Abū Dāwūd, al-Bayhaqī, and Aḥmad, through Shuʿbah → Yazīd ibn Khumayr, who said, “I heard a client of Quraysh say, ‘I heard Abū Hurayrah relate it to Muʿāwiyah.’” The transmitters in this chain are reliable—indeed, they are the men used by Muslim—except for the unnamed client of Quraysh.

Note: The author of al-Muntaqā attributed this ḥadīth of Abū Hurayrah to Aḥmad and Abū Dāwūd. His commentator al-Shawkānī wrote, “We searched for this ḥadīth in Sunan Abī Dāwūd, Musnad Aḥmad, al-Jāmiʿ al-Kabīr, and Majmaʿ al-Zawāʾid but did not find it in this wording; therefore, one must reconsider the author’s attribution of it to Aḥmad and Abū Dāwūd.”

I say: This is astonishing, for the ḥadīth appears in the Musnad in three different places, whose page numbers we have already provided. How could he have missed it after his claimed search? As for Abū Dāwūd, he is excused for not locating it, because he placed it where one would hardly expect—in the Book of Sales—where it forms part of a longer narration.