like You, nor will anyone like You ever be asked. And I ask You by the right of Muhammad, Your Prophet; Abraham, Your close friend; Moses, Your confidant; and Jesus, Your spirit and Your word, honoured in Your sight.’” He then cited the remainder of the supplication.

This Mūsā ibn ‘Abd al-Rahmān is among the liars. Abū Ahmad ibn ‘Adī said of him:

“He narrates rejected hadith.”

Abū Hātim ibn Hibbān said:

“He is an impostor who fabricates hadith. He fabricated a book of Quran commentary, falsely attributing it to Ibn Jurayj, from ‘Atā’, from Ibn ‘Abbās, compiling it from the statements of al-Kalbī and Muqātil.”

Something similar—without the fasting—is transmitted from Ibn Mas‘ūd through Mūsā ibn Ibrāhīm al-Marwazī, who said: “Wakī‘ narrated to us, from ‘Ubayda, from Shaqīq, from Ibn Mas‘ūd.” Yahyā ibn Ma‘īn said of this Mūsā ibn Ibrāhīm: “A liar.” Al-Dāraqutnī said: “His narrations are abandoned.” Ibn Hibbān said: “He was heedless: he would accept what was prompted to him, and thus deserved to have his narrations abandoned.” This is also transmitted from ‘Umar ibn ‘Abd al-‘Azīz, from Mujāhid ibn Jabr, from Ibn Mas‘ūd, through a chain weaker than the first.

Abū al-Shaykh al-Asbahānī transmitted it through Ahmad ibn Ishāq al-Jawharī, who said: “Abū al-Ash‘ath narrated to us; Zuhayr ibn al-‘Alā’ al-‘Utbī narrated to us; Yūsuf ibn Yazīd narrated to us, from al-Zuhrī.” He traced the hadith back to the Prophet, who was reported to have said:

“Whoever wishes to retain what he learns should fast for seven days, and let him break his fast at the end of the seven days with these words.”

I say: These chains of transmission are obscure; nothing can be established through them. Abū Mūsā al-Madīnī transmitted it in his dictated collections, as did Abū ‘Abd Allāh al-Maqdisī, following the practice of scholars like them who transmit whatever is reported on a subject, whether authentic or weak. This is also the customary practice of most later hadith scholars: they transmit reports concerning virtues and place responsibility