844 — “Would you like to exert yourselves in supplication? Say: ‘O Allah, help us to thank You, remember You, and worship You well.’”

Aḥmad recorded it (2/299), and Abū Nuʿaym, on his authority, in al-Ḥilyah (9/223), with an authentic chain of transmission: from Abū Qurrah Mūsā ibn Ṭāriq, from Mūsā ibn ʿUqbah, from Abū Ṣāliḥ al-Sammān and ʿAṭāʾ ibn Yasār—or from one of the two—from Abū Hurayrah, from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, who said it.

He said: “It is singular among the reports of Mūsā ibn ʿUqbah; Abū Qurrah Mūsā ibn Ṭāriq alone transmitted it.”

I say: He is trustworthy, and all the narrators above him are trustworthy transmitters found in the two Ṣaḥīḥs; thus, the chain is authentic.

Al-Ḥākim also recorded it (1/499) through Khārijah ibn Muṣʿab, from Mūsā ibn ʿUqbah, with the same report. He said: “The chain of transmission is authentic, for the only criticism made of Khārijah concerns his narrations from unknown narrators. But when he narrates from trustworthy, firmly established narrators, his narration is accepted.”

I say: Al-Dhahabī concurred with him, but this judgment is untenable from both of them—especially al-Dhahabī—for he listed this Khārijah in al-Ḍuʿafāʾ and said: “Al-Dāraquṭnī and others declared him weak.”

Al-Ḥākim’s statement, “The only criticism made of him concerns his narrations from unknown narrators,” is something I have not seen from any other critical hadith master. Rather, they accused him of lying, as reported from Ibn Maʿīn; and he was also charged with concealment in transmission. Yaḥyā ibn Yaḥyā—who transmitted this hadith from him—said: “He used to practise concealment in transmission from Ghiyāth ibn Ibrāhīm. Ghiyāth’s reports are untenable, and his sound reports cannot be distinguished from the rest.”