and, once it is properly understood, it becomes proof in our favour against them. Praise be to Allah for His enabling grace.

The third ḥadith:
Abu Umamah reported that when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ began the morning or the evening he would supplicate with these words: “O Allah, You are the One most entitled to be mentioned and the One most entitled to be worshipped … I ask You by the light of Your Face, which has illuminated the heavens and the earth, by every right that belongs to You, and by the right of those who beseech You … .”

Al-Haythami said in Majmaʿ al-Zawāʾid 10/117: It was transmitted by al-Ṭabarānī, and in its chain is Faḍāl ibn Jubayr; he is weak, and there is unanimous agreement on his weakness.

I say: In fact, he is very weak. Ibn Ḥibbān levelled the following charge against him: “An elderly man who claims to have heard from Abu Umamah and narrates from him what is not his ḥadith.” He also said: “It is never permissible to use him as evidence; he transmits reports that have no basis.”

Ibn ʿAdiyy stated in al-Kāmil 25/13: “All of his ḥadiths are unpreserved.”

Hence, the ḥadith is extremely weak and may not be cited even as corroboration, as the author of Miṣbāḥ, p. 56, has done.

The fourth ḥadith:
Anas ibn Mālik reported: When Fāṭimah bint Asad ibn Hāshim, the mother of ʿAlī ﵄, passed away, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ summoned Usāmah ibn Zayd, Abu Ayyūb al-Anṣārī and ʿUmar ibn