“Abu ʿĪsā al-Tirmidhī said: ‘ʿIkrimah’s mursal report from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, is more authentic.’”

I say: It is a mursal report with an authentic chain of transmission. Al-Dāraqutnī and al-Bayhaqī also narrated it with a connected chain through Abū Qutaybah Salamah ibn Qutaybah, who said: Shuʿbah and al-Thawrī narrated to us, from ʿĀṣim al-Aḥwal, from ʿIkrimah, from Ibn ʿAbbās, with similar wording. Al-Bayhaqī said: “Abū Bakr ʿAbd Allāh ibn Sulaymān ibn al-Ashʿath said: ‘No one besides Abū Qutaybah narrated it with a connected chain from Sufyān and Shuʿbah. The correct version is from ʿĀṣim, from ʿIkrimah, as a mursal report.’”

I say: Salamah is truthful and is among al-Bukhārī’s narrators in his Ṣaḥīḥ. Nor was he alone in narrating it with a connected chain: al-Ṭabarānī also transmitted it in al-Kabīr (no. 11917), through al-Ḍaḥḥāk ibn Ḥamrah, from Manṣūr, from ʿĀṣim al-Bajalī, from ʿIkrimah, with the wording: “Whoever does not place his nose upon the ground together with his forehead when he prostrates, his prayer is invalid.” There is disagreement concerning this al-Ḍaḥḥāk, though al-Tirmidhī graded a report of his as good. He has some weakness, but it does not prevent his report from being used as corroboration.

In sum, the hadith is authentic in my view, because, in addition to its authentic mursal route, it has these connected chains. Its basis is found in the two Ṣaḥīḥs through another route from Ibn ʿAbbās, directly attributed to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, with the wording: “I have been commanded to prostrate on seven: the forehead and nose, the two hands, the two knees, and the two feet.” In another narration: “The forehead”—and he indicated his nose with his hand. Thus, the nose is considered part of the forehead with respect to this ruling, and so it shares its ruling. It is therefore as though the hadith under discussion is an abridgement of it. And Allah knows best.