Shaykh al-Islam was asked about the words of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace:

“O Allah, send blessings upon Muhammad and the family of Muhammad, as You sent blessings upon the family of Abraham. Indeed, You are Praiseworthy, Glorious”—and the rest of the hadith;

and his words:

“O Allah, send blessings upon Muhammad and the family of Muhammad, as You sent blessings upon Abraham and the family of Abraham.”

Are the two hadiths equally authentic? What is the ruling on mentioning the family without mentioning Abraham?

He replied:

Praise be to Allah. This hadith is recorded in the authentic collections through four chains of transmission. The best-known is the report of ʿAbd al-Rahmān ibn Abī Laylā, who said: Kaʿb ibn ʿUjrah met me and said, “Shall I offer you a gift?”

“The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, came out to us, and we said, ‘We have learned how to greet you with peace, but how should we invoke blessings upon you?’

“He said, ‘Say: O Allah, send blessings upon Muhammad and the family of Muhammad, as You sent blessings upon the family of Abraham. Indeed, You are Praiseworthy, Glorious. O Allah, bless—or, in another wording, “and bless”—Muhammad and the family of Muhammad, as You blessed the family of Abraham. Indeed, You are Praiseworthy, Glorious.’”

It was narrated by the compilers of the authentic collections, the Sunan collections, and the Musnad collections, including al-Bukhārī, Muslim, Abū Dāwūd, al-Tirmidhī, al-Nasāʾī, Ibn Mājah, and Imam Ahmad in his Musnad, as well as others.