“Truthful, but makes mistakes.” All the other narrators in its chain are trustworthy, except for al-Ṭabarānī’s teacher, Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr ibn Khālid al-Ḥarrānī, for whom I could not find a biographical notice. However, the hadith is corroborated by his saying, peace and blessings be upon him: “Perform Witr before morning comes.” Muslim and others recorded it from the hadith of Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī, and it has been documented in al-Irwāʾ (421).
This time limit for Witr is like that prescribed for the five daily prayers: it applies only to one who is neither asleep nor forgetful. If someone does not wake up for it within its time, he should perform Witr whenever he wakes up, even after dawn. This is how his statement to the man in this hadith—“Then perform Witr”—is to be understood, after he had told him: “Witr is only at night.” There is an explicit hadith on this matter; see al-Mishkāh (1268) and al-Irwāʾ (422).
- “We had forbidden you to eat the meat of the sacrifices beyond three days, so that it would suffice for you all. But Allah has now granted abundance, so eat, store it, and give in charity, seeking reward. Indeed, these days are days of eating, drinking, and the remembrance of Allah, exalted is He.”
Abū Dāwūd (2813) recorded it, as did al-Bayhaqī (9/292) through him, and Aḥmad (5/75), through Khālid al-Ḥadhdhāʾ, from Abū al-Malīḥ ibn Usāmah, from Nubayshah al-Hudhalī, who said: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said it.
I say: Its chain of transmission is authentic according to the criteria of the two Shaykhs. Al-Bayhaqī said: “The expression ‘give in charity, seeking reward’ originally reads ‘seek reward,’ in the form iftaʿalū. It refers to charity for which reward is sought, and does not derive from the sense of commercial trade.”