I say: This indicates that it has another chain from Anas. He cited it immediately after this with the wording, “The first thing concerning which one will be questioned …”; it will come shortly.

I say: This chain is weak, and the reason for its weakness is al-Qasim ibn Uthman, whom al-Bukhari and al-Daraqutni declared weak.

I then found that al-Diya' recorded the hadith in al-Mukhtarah (209/2), by way of al-Tabarani: Ahmad ibn Abi Awf narrated to us; Isma'il ibn Isa al-Wasiti narrated to us; [reporting] through the same chain. He then narrated it through another chain from al-Azraq, through the same route. Al-Tabarani and al-Diya' (1/197) then recorded it by way of Ruh ibn Abd al-Wahid al-Qurashi: Khulayid ibn Da'lah narrated to us, from Qatadah, from Anas, attributed to the Prophet: “The first thing concerning which the servant will be questioned on the Day of Resurrection is his prayer. If it is sound, he has prospered; but if it is corrupt, he has failed and lost.” Al-Tabarani said: “No one narrated it from Qatadah except Khulayid, and Ruh alone narrated it.”

I say: Abu Hatim said of him: “He is not strong.” Khulayid ibn Da'lah is weak. However, he was contradicted by Aban ibn Yazid al-Attar, who said: Qatadah informed us, from al-Hasan, from Anas, attributing it to the Prophet, with the same wording, except that he said: “He has prospered and succeeded.” Ibn Shadhan recorded it in a section of his hadith collection (fol. 16/1): Uthman ibn al-Sammak narrated to us; Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Isa al-Burti informed us; Musa ibn Isma'il informed us; Aban informed us through the same chain.

This is a chain of transmission whose narrators are all trustworthy and included among the narrators of al-Tahdhib, apart from al-Burti and Uthman ibn al-Sammak—namely, Uthman ibn Ahmad ibn al-Sammak. Both are trustworthy, and both have biographical entries in Tarikh al-Khatib. Were it not for al-Hasan al-Basri’s unspecific use of the transmission formula ʿan (“from”), I would have said that it is an authentic chain. However, Ibn Nasr recorded it in al-Salah (fol. 31/1): Muhammad ibn Yahya narrated to us; Musa ibn Isma'il narrated to us through the same chain, except that he said: from al-Hasan, from Anas ibn Hakim, from Abu Hurayrah, that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said it. Thus, the hadith is the hadith of Anas ibn Hakim.