Whomsoever Allah guides, none can mislead, and whomsoever He leads astray, none can guide. The best discourse is the Book of Allah…’ (the ḥadīth).

In another wording from him: ‘He would say in his sermon after the tashahhud: Indeed, the finest speech is the Book of Allah…’ This version was related by Aḥmad and others.

This wording points out that what precedes the phrase ‘Indeed, the best discourse…’ in the first narration is the tashahhud. Although it is not mentioned there explicitly, it is hinted at by his words, ‘he praises Allah and extols Him.’ Other ḥadīths concerning the Khutbat al-Ḥājah make clear that this extolling of Allah included the two testimonies of faith. Hence we have said that the tashahhud referred to in this ḥadīth is an allusion to the tashahhud found in the Khutbat al-Ḥājah, and it agrees with the second wording of Jābir’s report in pointing to that. I have discussed this in detail in my treatise Khutbat al-Ḥājah (p. 32, Islamic Office edition); whoever wishes may consult it.

His statement, ‘like a mangled hand (al-yad al-jadhmā),’ means a severed hand; al-jadhm denotes rapid cutting. In other words, every sermon in which praise and glorification of Allah are omitted is like a severed hand that serves no purpose (al-Manāwī).

I say: Perhaps this is the reason—or at least one of the reasons—why many lessons and lectures delivered to students yield little benefit: they are not opened with the aforementioned tashahhud, despite the Prophet’s keen concern to teach it to his Companions, as I clarified in the treatise just mentioned. Hopefully this ḥadīth will remind preachers to make up for what they have neglected of this sunnah, which we have so often underscored in the introduction to this series and elsewhere.

(Note):

Al-Suyūṭī, in al-Jāmiʿ al-Ṣaghīr, attributed the ḥadīth to Abū Dāwūd alone and added