It was recorded by al-Tirmidhī (509), Abū Yaʿlā in his Musnad (3/1310–1311), al-Ṭabarānī in al-Muʿjam al-Kabīr (9991), Tammām in al-Fawāʾid (11/2), and Ismāʿīl al-Ṣaffār in the Second Part of His Hadith (7/2). Al-Tirmidhī said: “There are also reports on this subject from Ibn ʿUmar. Muḥammad ibn al-Faḍl is rejected as a transmitter of hadith. The practice of the scholars among the Companions of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, and others, is in accordance with this: they considered it recommended to face the imam when he delivers the sermon. This was the view of Sufyān al-Thawrī, al-Shāfiʿī, Aḥmad, and Isḥāq. No sound report concerning this matter is authentically attributed to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him.”

That is what he said, but it is open to question in view of the previously cited hadith of Ibn al-Mubārak and the supporting evidence that follows. As for his statement, “...from Ibn ʿUmar,” I have not seen it attributed to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. Al-Bayhaqī narrated through his chain from Abū ʿAmmār—the original has Abū ʿĀmir—who said: Al-Walīd ibn Muslim narrated to us: Ismāʿīl and others informed me, from Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Anṣārī, who said: “It is the Sunnah that, when the imam sits upon the pulpit on Friday, all the people turn their faces toward him.”

Through the same chain, al-Walīd said: I mentioned this to al-Layth ibn Saʿd, and he informed me from Ibn ʿAjlān, who informed him from Nāfiʿ: “Ibn ʿUmar would finish his voluntary prayer on Friday before the imam came out; when he came out, Ibn ʿUmar would not sit until he had turned to face him.”

I say: Its chain of transmission is good. Its narrators have biographies in al-Tahdhīb, down to Ibn ʿAmmār, whose name was al-Ḥusayn ibn Ḥurayth al-Marwazī. What appears in the original is an error, perhaps on the part of the printer or copyist, for the one who narrated from him was Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan, Ibn Matūyah al-Iṣbahānī. He has a favourable biographical notice in Ṭabaqāt al-Iṣbahāniyyīn by Abū al-Shaykh and Akhbār Iṣbahān by Abū Nuʿaym, and he was one of Abū al-Shaykh’s teachers. Al-Mizzī mentioned him among those who narrated from Abū ʿAmmār, just as he mentioned Abū ʿAmmār among those who narrated from al-Walīd ibn Muslim.