and Saʿd, who narrated from him, was not cited by Muslim at all and was also weak. Al-Dhahabī himself included him in al-Ḍuʿafāʾ (The Weak Narrators) and said: “Ibn Ḥibbān said: ‘He was one whose errors were gross.’ Ibn Maʿīn said: ‘There is no harm in him.’” Al-Ḥāfiẓ said: “Truthful, but he made mistakes.”

I say: Such a chain does not give the heart confidence in its establishment, especially since the preserved wording of the hadith is “ten verses,” rather than “one hundred,” as mentioned above. And Allah knows best.

643 — “Whoever recites one hundred verses in a night will not be recorded among the heedless, or will be recorded among the devoutly obedient.”

Ibn Naṣr recorded it in Qiyām al-Layl (Night Prayer) (p. 66), and Ibn Khuzaymah in his Ṣaḥīḥ (1/124/2), both through the same chain: Aḥmad ibn Saʿīd al-Dārimī narrated to us; ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Shaqīq narrated to us; Abū Ḥamzah (al-Sukkarī) informed us, from al-Aʿmash, from Abū Ṣāliḥ, from Abu Hurayrah, who said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said [this]. This is an authentic chain according to the criteria of al-Bukhārī and Muslim.

The words, “or will be recorded among the devoutly obedient,” represent uncertainty on the part of one of its narrators. In my view, there should be no uncertainty about this, for two reasons. First, the wording, “will not be recorded among the heedless,” has been established for one who performs prayer with ten verses, as stated in the hadith just cited. Second, the wording, “will be recorded among the devoutly obedient,” has been established for one who performs prayer with one hundred verses.

ʿAbd Allah ibn Ziyād narrated from Muḥammad ibn Kaʿb al-Quraẓī, from Ibn ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with them), that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: