878 — “Whenever you sit after every two rak‘ahs, say: ‘All greetings, prayers, and good things are due to Allah. Peace be upon you, O Prophet, and Allah’s mercy and blessings. Peace be upon us and upon Allah’s righteous servants. I bear witness that none has the right to be worshipped but Allah, and that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger.’ Then let him choose whichever supplication he likes best.”

Al-Nasa’i recorded it (1/174), as did Ahmad (1/437) and al-Tabarani in al-Mu‘jam al-Kabir (3/55/1), through Shu‘bah, who said: Abu Ishaq informed us; Abu al-Ahwas informed us, from Abdullah, who said: “We did not know what to say after every two rak‘ahs, apart from glorifying Allah, declaring His greatness, and praising our Lord. Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, taught us the beginnings and endings of all goodness, and he said…” Then he cited it.

I say: This is an authentic chain of transmission, with a continuous chain, meeting Muslim’s criteria.

Ibrahim ibn Yusuf ibn Abi Ishaq corroborated him. He said: My father narrated to me from Abu Ishaq, who said: Abu al-Ahwas, al-Aswad ibn Yazid, ‘Amr ibn Maymun, and the companions of Abdullah informed me that they heard him say it. Then he cited it. Al-Tabarani recorded it: Abdullah ibn Ahmad ibn Hanbal and Muhammad ibn Abdullah al-Hadrami narrated to us; they said: Abdullah ibn Muhammad ibn Salim al-Qazzaz informed us; Ibrahim informed us.

I say: This is a good chain of transmission. Its narrators are trustworthy and are narrators of the two Sahihs, apart from this al-Qazzaz. Al-Hafiz said: “Trustworthy, though he sometimes contradicted others.”

The hadith contains an important benefit: the prescribed nature of supplication in the first tashahhud (testimony of faith). I have not seen any of the imams maintain this view except Ibn Hazm, and he is correct, although he cited general texts which opponents may rebut with other texts that qualify them. As for this hadith, it is itself an explicit, clear, and elucidated text that admits of no qualification. May Allah have mercy on whoever is fair and follows the sunnah.