Its chain of transmission is likewise sound by his criteria.

Al-Ṭabarānī also reports this statement of Ibn ʿAbbās with the wording:

“I do not care to pray inside the Kaʿbah; whoever does so will necessarily have left part of the House behind him. My brother told me that when the Prophet ﷺ entered it he lowered himself between the two pillars in prostration, then sat, supplicated, and did not perform a prayer.”

Al-Haythamī says in al-Majmaʿ: “Al-Ṭabarānī related it in al-Kabīr; in the chain is Ibn Isḥāq, who is trustworthy but prone to tadlīs.”

I add: It is authentically established that Ibn ʿAbbās denied that the Prophet ﷺ prayed inside the Kaʿbah, although he did not witness the event himself. At times he attributed this denial to his brother al-Faḍl—as in the present report, which appears in the Musnad and through other routes—and at other times he related it from Usāmah ibn Zayd, as found in Muslim and elsewhere. His narration concerning facing the qiblah will appear, God willing, in its proper place.

The scholars, however, have preferred the report of Bilāl and the Companions who accompanied him, for it constitutes an additional, reliable detail: it affirms an action, and—as is the rule in such cases—an affirming report takes precedence over a negating one. Usāmah’s words “he did not pray” mean only “I did not see him pray.” He was unaware, whereas the others had knowledge; and the evidence of one who knows overrides that of one who does not.

Accordingly, the majority hold that both obligatory and supererogatory prayers may be offered inside the Kaʿbah. This is the position of Abū Ḥanīfah, al-Thawrī, and most jurists, as al-Nawawī states in al-Majmūʿ. Al-Tirmidhī said: