“When a servant uses the tooth-stick and then stands to pray, the angel stands behind him and listens to his recitation, drawing near to him—or words to that effect—until he places his mouth upon his mouth. Nothing of the Quran leaves his mouth except that it enters the angel’s interior. So purify your mouths for the Quran.”

Al-Bazzar recorded it in his Musnad (p. 60) and said: “We know of no chain from Ali better than this one.”

I say: Its chain is good; its narrators are narrators used by al-Bukhari. There is some criticism of al-Fudayl, but it is not detrimental. Al-Mundhiri said in al-Targhib (1/102): “Al-Bazzar narrated it with a good, unobjectionable chain. Ibn Majah narrated part of it as a report attributed to the Companion, and that is perhaps more likely.”

I say: No; for Ibn Majah’s chain contains a break and an abandoned narrator. Moreover, others have narrated it through the aforementioned route as a report attributed to the Prophet. The hadith also has a supporting narration from Jabir, attributed to the Prophet, with similar wording. It was recorded by Tammam, al-Bayhaqi in al-Shu‘ab, and al-Diya’ in al-Mukhtarah, as cited in al-Jami‘ al-Saghir. Its narrators are trustworthy, as al-Manawi related from Ibn Daqiq al-‘Id. Another supporting narration was recorded by Ibn Nasr in al-Salah from Ibn Shihab as a mursal report, also as cited in al-Jami‘.

1214 — “This is the trustworthy custodian of this community,” referring to Abu ‘Ubaydah ibn al-Jarrah.

Muslim recorded it (7/129), as did Ibn Sa‘d in al-Tabaqat (3/2/299), through several routes from Hammad ibn Salamah, from Thabit al-Bunani, from Anas ibn Malik: “When the people of Yemen came to the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, they asked him to send with them a man who would teach them the sunnah and Islam. He took Abu ‘Ubaydah ibn al-Jarrah by the hand and said…” Then he mentioned it. It will also appear under no. (196), with additional documentation and an important explanatory note.