It was likewise recorded by Ibn Khuzaymah and Ibn Ḥibbān. Al-Bayhaqī, however, ruled the report weak—or at least attempted to—saying:

“Hammād ibn Salamah → Abū Naʿāmah → Abū Naḍrah: every one of them is subject to dispute regarding his uprightness.”

Such were his words, yet all three are reliable transmitters whom Muslim used as evidence, and whom Ibn Ḥajar declared trustworthy in al-Taqrīb. Ibn al-Turkumānī answered al-Bayhaqī on this point in al-Jawhar al-Naqī, refuting him at length and with skill. Moreover, Hammād ibn Salamah was not alone in narrating it; Ibn Zayd corroborated him, as mentioned earlier. Indeed, al-Bayhaqī himself relates a supporting report from Anas and remarks, “Its chain is unobjectionable.”

He cites it through al-Ḥākim—in the Mustadrak—via Mūsā ibn Ismāʿīl and Ibrāhīm ibn al-Ḥajjāj, both of whom said: “ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Muthannā narrated to us, from Thumāmah, from Anas ibn Mālik, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ never removed his sandals during prayer except on a single occasion. Consequently the people removed theirs. He asked, ‘What is the matter with you?’ They replied, ‘You removed yours, so we removed ours.’ He said, ‘Gabriel informed me that there was filth on them.’”

Al-Bayhaqī commented, “ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Muthannā is the sole narrator of it.”

I reply: he is listed among al-Bukhārī’s transmitters, as is Thumāmah; therefore, the chain is sound according to his criterion. (1)