Abu Dawud said: “There is no objection to him; he is a righteous man.” Al-‘Ijli said: “His hadith may be recorded, though he has some weakness.” Al-Hafiz judged it defective in al-Ta‘jil because of a break in the chain between al-Hanafi and Abu Hurayrah. From what has preceded, the error in al-Mundhiri’s statement (1/183) becomes clear: “Ahmad narrated it with a good chain of transmission.” Likewise, al-‘Iraqi said in Takhrij al-Ihya’ (1/132): “Its chain of transmission is authentic.”

Al-Haythami said in Majma‘ al-Zawa’id (2/120): “Ahmad narrated it through ‘Abd Allah ibn Zayd al-Hanafi, from Abu Hurayrah, and I have not found any biographical entry for him.” I say: What appears in al-Musnad is “‘Abd Allah ibn Badr,” as stated above; al-Hafiz likewise cited it from al-Musnad. It therefore appears that the name was corrupted for al-Haythami, or that this is how it occurred in his copy of al-Musnad. And Allah knows best.

In sum, the soundest version of this hadith is that it was narrated by ‘Abd Allah ibn Badr, from ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn ‘Ali ibn Shayban, from his father, attributed to the Prophet, with the wording: “There is no prayer for one who does not straighten his back in bowing and prostration.” However, the hadith under the present heading has corroborating support through the narration of ‘Ali ibn Zayd, from Sa‘id ibn al-Musayyib, from Anas, attributed to the Prophet, within a hadith. It was related by Abu Ya‘la (3/914–916).