“It therefore appears that Sulayman heard it from Abdullah ibn Amir, and I know it only through the hadith of Ibn Wahb in this form!”

I say: This is an extraordinarily strange attempt to identify a defect; merely recounting it renders its refutation unnecessary. Sulayman ibn Bilal is trustworthy and an authoritative proof, and al-Bukhari, Muslim, and others are agreed on accepting his hadith as evidence. Nor has he been accused of concealment in transmission. So how can his hadith be declared defective on the basis of this weak Abdullah?! Brother Ali al-Halabi responded to him well in his annotations; may Allah reward him well.

This is the first point. The second is that al-Hafiz al-Sakhawi cited it in al-Ibtihaj (p. 47) and said: “Muslim and Abu Dawud transmitted it with the addition, ‘and His blessing’; and al-Hakim with the addition that he would say it three times and raise his voice thereby.”

I say: He overlooked the fact that Abu Dawud’s addition is also found in al-Hakim.

The third is that Ibn al-Qayyim cited it in al-Wabil al-Sayyib (p. 298) with al-Hakim’s wording, declaring it authentic according to Muslim’s criteria. In fact, it is merely authentic, as explained previously. Shaykh Ismail al-Ansari commented on it with remarks that are of no benefit, and even in a manner that falsely suggests that al-Hafiz al-Sakhawi had exaggerated. He remained silent about clarifying the error indicated above, let alone another anomaly in al-Hakim’s narration: his wording, “Then dawn became visible to him,” in place of, “when the pre-dawn hour came.”

Likewise, Brother Badr failed to notice this in his annotation on al-Da‘awat. He objected to al-Hakim’s declaring it authentic according to Muslim’s criteria, saying: “I say: Muslim has already transmitted it, as stated above; therefore, it is not as the two of them said.” This correction of the two of them is doubly mistaken. For while he tacitly endorses their declaring it authentic according to Muslim’s criteria, it cannot be attributed to Muslim when it contains anomalies in the three places that do not occur in Muslim’s version. So take note.