The hadith has another corroborating report from Ibn ʿAbbas, traced back to the Prophet, with the wording: “Do not cover the walls … Ask Allah with the insides of your palms …” The hadith adds at the end: “When you have finished, wipe your faces with them.” Abu Dawud recorded it (1485) through ʿAbd Allah ibn Yaʿqub ibn Isḥaq, from someone who narrated to him, from Muhammad ibn Kaʿb al-Quraẓi, who said: Ibn ʿAbbas narrated to me. He said: “This hadith has been related from Muhammad ibn Kaʿb through more than one route, all of them feeble. This route is the best of them, yet it too is weak.”

I say: Its hidden defect is the unnamed man. Ibn Majah and others identified him as Ṣaliḥ ibn Ḥassan, as I explained in my commentary on al-Mishkat (2243). He is very weak; accordingly, this addition is rejected. To date, I have not found any corroborating report for it. It was perhaps for this reason that al-ʿIzz ibn ʿAbd al-Salam said: “No one wipes his face except an ignorant person.” Al-Manawi’s objection to him is therefore misplaced. How could it be otherwise, when this addition—even if its chain were merely weak—could not be acted upon, since it entails a legal ruling: the recommendation of the aforementioned wiping? So what then when it is very weak?

Note: The hadith of Ibn ʿUmar, traced back to the Prophet, does not serve as corroboration for this addition: “Whenever he raised his hands in supplication, he would not lower them until he had wiped his face with them.” This is because its chain contains someone accused of fabrication. Abu Zurʿah said: “It is a rejected hadith; I fear that it has no basis.” As I explained in my commentary on al-Mishkat (2245). Nor does the similar hadith of al-Saʾib ibn Yazid from his father, recorded by Abu Dawud (1492), because it contains Ibn Lahiʿah, who is weak, narrating from Ḥafṣ ibn Hashim