Finally, while this was in press, I found that al-Hakim had recorded it (1/235–236) through the route of Muhammad ibn Ishaq, who said: Sa‘id ibn Abi Sa‘id informed me, from his father, from Abu Hurayrah, who said:

The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, led us in the Zuhr prayer. When he had concluded it with the salām, he called out to a man who was at the rear of the rows and said: “So-and-so! Do you not fear Allah? Do you not consider how you pray? When one of you stands to pray, he stands only to converse privately with his Lord; so let him consider how he converses with Him. You think that I cannot see you, but by Allah, I can see what is behind my back just as I see what is before me.”

It is found in Musnad Ahmad (2/449) through this route, but without the passage concerning private conversation. Al-Hakim said: “Authentic according to the conditions of Muslim,” and al-Dhahabi agreed with him.

I say: Rather, it is only good, as we have pointed out repeatedly regarding the hadiths of Ibn Ishaq. In any case, his narration of the hadith from Abu Hurayrah through its authentic chain indicates that the hadith cited in the heading has a well-established basis from him; thus, it is a strong corroborating report for it. And Allah knows best.

1604 — “Some people of this ummah will spend the night amid food, drink, and amusement, then awake having been transformed into monkeys and swine.”

Abu Nu‘aym recorded it in Akhbar Asbahan (2/126) through the route of ‘Ali ibn Yunus al-Asbahani: Abu Dawud al-Tayalisi narrated to us; Ja‘far ibn Sulayman al-Duba‘i narrated to us; Farqad al-Sabakhi narrated to us, from Qatadah, from Sa‘id ibn al-Musayyib, from Ibn ‘Abbas, who said: The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said it. He also said: “It is a singular report from Qatadah from Sa‘id, narrated exclusively by ‘Ali ibn Yunus from Abu Dawud.”

I say: He is trustworthy, as Abu al-Shaykh stated in Tabaqat al-Muhaddithin (2/74/2), and it is also recorded