I say: This chain of transmission is sound; every one of its narrators is trustworthy. The only weakness attributed to Ibn ʿAyyāsh concerns what he relates from non-Syrian transmitters, whereas when he narrates from the scholars of Syria his reports are sound, as al-Bukhārī and others have stated. The present ḥadīth belongs to that category, for Ṣafwān is one of their reliable men.

This wording also contains a rare benefit—the extra phrase “He gives life and causes death,” which is scarcely established in any other narration. It is reported as well in the ḥadīths of Abū Dharr and ʿUmārah ibn Shabīb, both of which al-Tirmidhī graded good, yet their chains are weak, as I clarified in al-Taʿlīq al-Raghīb ʿalā al-Targhīb wa’l-Tarhīb. In the first of those two reports the wording is: “Whoever says, after the dawn prayer, while still sitting with his legs folded, before speaking, lā ilāha illā Allāh….” The restriction “while still sitting…” is not authentic, for it is uniquely narrated by Shahr ibn Ḥawshab, who vacillated greatly in both the chain and the wording of the report, as I explained in the source just cited.

115 – “Keep to the straight course, draw as near to it as you can, act, choose the best, and know that the finest of your deeds is the prayer; and no one maintains his wudūʾ (ablution) except a believer.”

It was narrated by Imām Aḥmad (5/282): “Al-Walīd ibn Muslim narrated to us; Ibn Thawbān narrated to us; Ḥassān ibn ʿAṭiyyah informed me that Abū Kabshah al-Salūlī told him that he heard Thawbān say: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said…. ”

Al-Dārimī (1/168), Ibn Ḥibbān (164) and al-Ṭabarānī in al-Muʿjam al-Kabīr (1/72/2) likewise recorded it through al-Walīd with the same chain.

I say: This chain is good; all of its narrators are trustworthy men cited by al-Bukhārī, save for Ibn Thawbān.