by the supports of the majesty of Your Throne, by the ultimate mercy contained in Your Book, by Your Greatest Name, by Your supreme grandeur, and by Your perfect words. Then ask for your need, raise your head, and end with salām to the right and to the left. He added, “Do not teach this supplication to the foolish, for if they invoke it, their prayer will be answered.”

This—or something to that effect—was narrated by al-Ḥākim from Ibn Masʿūd (may Allah be pleased with him). Aḥmad ibn Ḥarb said, “I tried it and found it to be sound.” Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAlī said, “I tried it and found it to be true.” Al-Ḥākim likewise reported that Zakariyyā said, “I tried it and found it to be true.” Kindly inform us, may Allah reward you well: is this prayer genuinely transmitted from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) in this form?

Answer: I have not been able to locate any original source for this ḥadīth in the ḥadīth collections or in the works of verification and tracing, nor do I know anything certain about it. Moreover, it contains several peculiar features, as the questioner noted: it legislates the recitation of Sūrat al-Fātiḥah in other than the standing posture—during bowing or prostration—and repeats it; it also includes imploring “by the supports of the majesty of the Throne,” and other unusual expressions. All of this is strange. Therefore, the inquirer should not act on this ḥadīth. In the authentic, well-established ḥadīths of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)—which are free of ambiguity—there is ample provision of supererogatory acts of worship, prayers, and devotions that contain every good and sufficiency, by Allah’s permission.

As for the statements that so-and-so tried it and found it effective, or that another tried it and found it true, none of this proves the authenticity of the ḥadīth. A person’s experiencing something and achieving his desired outcome does not establish the correctness of what has been said about it or what has been transmitted concerning it.