It was recorded by al-Nasāʾī, and its chain is sound; all of its transmitters are those used by al-Bukhārī except Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar ibn ʿAlī ibn Muqaddam, al-Nasāʾī’s own shaykh in this isnād, and he has been rated trustworthy. The “Yūsuf ibn Yaʿqūb” mentioned here is Ibn Abī al-Qāsim al-Ḍubayʿī.

In the Musnad there is another route for the report from Qays, whose chain is likewise sound: every transmitter in it is reliable and found in Muslim’s collection, apart from Iyās ibn Qatādah, whom Ibn Saʿd and Ibn Ḥibbān deemed trustworthy. The Abū Ḥamzah referred to is ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAbd Allāh—also said: Ibn Abī ʿAbd Allāh—al-Māzinī, a neighbour of Shuʿbah.

5 – For people to sit in a circle before the Friday Prayer, even for the sake of study and discussion:

The proof is the ḥadīth, “The Messenger of Allah forbade buying and selling in the mosque, the reciting of poetry in it, the announcing of lost property in it, and the circles (in one wording: that people form circles) on Friday before the prayer.”

This ḥadīth was transmitted—sometimes in separate segments—by Abū Dāwūd and al-Nasāʾī, and likewise by Ibn Mājah, al-Tirmidhī, al-Ṭaḥāwī, al-Bayhaqī, and Aḥmad (whose wording has just been quoted), all of them through the line of transmission: Muḥammad ibn ʿAjlān → ʿAmr ibn Shuʿayb → his father → his grandfather ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ. Both of the extra clauses are present in every version except those of al-Nasāʾī and al-Ṭaḥāwī, who omit the first of the two; likewise