from the pulpit on Friday and said to him, “Have you prayed two rakʿahs?” He replied, “No.” The Prophet said, “Then pray two rakʿahs and keep them brief.”

Al-Ṭaḥāwī records this report, saying: “Yazīd ibn Sinān narrated to us; Ṣafwān ibn ʿĪsā narrated to us; Hishām ibn Ḥassān narrated to us….”

This isnād is sound: its transmitters, apart from Yazīd ibn Sinān and his shaykh Ṣafwān, are the narrators relied upon by the two Shaykhs (al-Bukhārī and Muslim), and both Yazīd and Ṣafwān are trustworthy according to Taqrīb al-Tahdhīb—provided that al-Ḥasan, that is, al-Basrī, actually heard the ḥadīth from Sulayk.

The report has also come from al-Ḥasan in mursal form. Al-Rabīʿ ibn Ṣabīḥ al-Baṣrī said, “I saw al-Ḥasan perform two rakʿahs while the imam was delivering the sermon.” Al-Ḥasan himself said, “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: ‘When one of you arrives while the imam is giving the sermon, let him pray two light rakʿahs and keep them short.’” Al-Dārimī transmits it from Sufyān al-Thawrī on al-Ḥasan’s authority.

Al-Rabīʿ ibn Ṣabīḥ is truthful but has weak retention, as stated in Taqrīb al-Tahdhīb.

In the mawqūf version he is supported by al-ʿAlāʾ ibn Khālid al-Qurashī, who said: “I saw al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī enter the mosque on Friday while the imam was delivering the sermon; he prayed two rakʿahs and then sat down.”

Al-Tirmidhī relates this and then remarks: “Al-Ḥasan only did so in adherence to the ḥadīth, for he had transmitted it from Jābir, from the Prophet ﷺ.”