It was narrated by al-Tirmidhi (2/146), Ibn Nasr (66), and Abu Nuʿaym in al-Hilyah (3/81), through Yahya ibn ʿAmr ibn Malik al-Nakari, from his father, from Abu al-Jawza, from Ibn ʿAbbas. Al-Tirmidhi said: “A good, singular hadith.” Abu Nuʿaym said: “We have not recorded it as a properly transmitted report attributed to the Prophet except through Yahya ibn ʿAmr, from his father.”

I say: His father, ʿAmr ibn Malik, was truthful but prone to errors. His son Yahya was weak, and it has been said that Hammad ibn Zayd declared him a liar, as stated in al-Taqrib. In al-Mizan, several of his rejected narrations are cited, and this hadith is one of them.

1141 — “Indeed, Allah has added a prayer to your prayers; it is better for you than the finest red camels: namely, the two rakʿahs before the Fajr prayer.”

Al-Bayhaqi narrated it (2/469) through ʿUmar ibn Muhammad ibn Bujayr: al-ʿAbbas ibn al-Walid al-Khallal related to us in Damascus; Marwan ibn Muhammad al-Dimashqi related to us; Muʿawiyah ibn Sallam related to us, from Yahya ibn Abi Kathir, from Abu Nadrah al-ʿAbdi, from Abu Saʿid al-Khudri, who said: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said it.

Al-ʿAbbas ibn al-Walid said: Yahya ibn Maʿin told me, “This is a singular hadith from Muʿawiyah ibn Sallam. Muʿawiyah ibn Sallam is the hadith scholar of the people of Syria, and he is truthful in hadith. Whoever has not written down his reports with continuous chains and his interrupted reports is no scholar of hadith.” I was informed that Muhammad ibn Ishaq ibn Khuzaymah said: “If I had been able to travel to Ibn Bujayr, I would have travelled to him for this hadith.” Al-Bayhaqi then cited his chain of transmission to Ibn Khuzaymah for this account.

I say: Ibn Bujayr was a major hadith master and truthful. Those above him are trustworthy narrators from among the narrators of Muslim, apart from al-ʿAbbas ibn al-Walid al-Khallal, who was likewise truthful. Thus, the chain is good. As al-Bayhaqi said, it is more authentic than the chain of Kharijah’s hadith concerning Witr, which states that it is better than the finest red camels. I have explained its hidden defect in Daʿif al-Sunan (255). A brief corroborating report for it has preceded (no. 108).