2254 — “O Allah, forgive Aishah her former and latter sins, what she concealed and what she disclosed.” He said: “By Allah, it is indeed my supplication for my ummah in every prayer.”

Al-Bazzar recorded it in his Musnad (2658, Kashf al-Astar): Ahmad ibn Mansur narrated to us; Harun ibn Ma'ruf narrated to us; Ibn Wahb narrated to us; Haywah informed me, from Abu Sakhr, from Ibn Qusayt, from Urwah, from Aishah, who said: “When I saw that the Prophet was in good spirits, I said: ‘O Messenger of Allah, supplicate to Allah for me.’ He then said the foregoing supplication. Aishah laughed until her head fell into the lap of the Messenger of Allah from laughter. He asked, ‘Does my supplication please you?’ She replied, ‘Why should your supplication not please me?’ He said, ‘By Allah, it is indeed my supplication...’ and so on.”

Al-Bazzar said: “It is narrated only from Aishah, and from her only through this chain of transmission.”

I say: This is a good chain of transmission. Its narrators are trustworthy and are narrators of Muslim, apart from Ahmad ibn Mansur—the Ramadi, one of Ibn Majah’s shaykhs—who is trustworthy. Were it not for some criticism of Abu Sakhr—whose name was Humayd ibn Ziyad—on account of his memory, I would have declared it authentic. Al-Dhahabi said in al-Kashif: “There is disagreement concerning him. Ahmad said: ‘There is nothing wrong with him.’” Al-Hafiz said in al-Taqrib: “Truthful, but prone to error.”

Therefore, his statement in Zawa'id al-Bazzar (p. 284), “Authentic,” is not free from leniency. Similar is the statement of his teacher, al-Haythami, in al-Majma' (9/244):