Al-Nawawī likewise ruled the report weak in al-Majmūʿ (4/33), saying: “Al-Bayhaqī transmitted it, but it is mursal, for Yazīd ibn Rumān never met ʿUmar.”

Al-ʿAynī expressed the same judgment in ʿUmdat al-Qārī, his commentary on Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī (5/357): “Its isnād is broken.”

Thus, the narration is weak because of the gap between Ibn Rumān and ʿUmar; it can therefore provide no evidence, all the more so because it contradicts the sound report from ʿUmar ordering that the night prayer be performed in eleven rakʿahs.

That other report is likewise disconnected. The eminent scholar al-Mubārakfūrī states in al-Tuḥfa (2/85): “Nīmāwī said in Āthār al-Sunan: ‘Its transmitters are trustworthy, but Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Anṣārī did not meet ʿUmar.’ ”

I say: it is exactly as Nīmāwī observed. This athar is munqaṭiʿ and unfit for proof; moreover, it conflicts with the authentic chain from ʿUmar—may Allah be pleased with him—in which he instructed Ubayy ibn Kaʿb and Tamīm al-Dārī to lead the people in eleven rakʿahs. Mālik recorded it in the Muwaṭṭaʾ, as mentioned earlier; it also runs counter to what has been soundly established from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. ⦗63⦘