827 — “Whenever he sat, he would draw up his legs and clasp them with his hands.”

It was recorded by Abū Dāwūd (4846), al-Tirmidhī in al-Shamāʾil (1/221–222), and Ibn ʿAdī in al-Kāmil (140/2); al-Bayhaqī likewise transmitted it from Ibn ʿAdī in al-Sunan (3/236), through ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ibrāhīm al-Madanī, who said: Isḥāq ibn Muḥammad al-Anṣārī related to me from Rubayḥ ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Saʿīd, from his father, from his grandfather Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī, who attributed it directly to the Prophet with this wording.

I say: This chain of transmission is very weak and contains several defects:

First: There is disagreement concerning this Rubayḥ. Al-Bukhārī said: “His hadith is rejected,” whereas Ibn ʿAdī said: “I hope that there is no objection to him.”

Second: Isḥāq ibn Muḥammad al-Anṣārī. Al-Ḥāfiẓ said: “He is unknown; al-Ghifārī alone narrated from him.”

Third: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ibrāhīm al-Madanī is abandoned; Ibn Ḥibbān and others accused him of fabricating hadith. It was on his account that Abū Dāwūd declared the report defective, saying after it: “A shaykh whose hadith is rejected.”

After mentioning the first and third defects, al-Manāwī said: “Accordingly, al-Ḥāfiẓ al-ʿIrāqī decisively judged its chain to be weak. This makes clear that the compiler’s symbol classifying it as good is itself inappropriate. Even if he did not classify it as good, his merely attributing it to its source”—meaning Abū Dāwūd—“while remaining silent about the discrediting flaw that he mentioned afterward, is poor practice.”