so he instructed him, when going to bed, to seek refuge in the perfect words of Allah from His wrath, from the evil of His servants, and from the promptings of the devils and from their being present. Ibn al-Sunnī recorded it in ʿAmal al-Yawm wa-l-Laylah (no. 746).

Aḥmad (4/57), al-Bayhaqī in al-Asmāʾ (p. 185), Ibn Abī Shaybah in al-Muṣannaf (10/362–363), and Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr in al-Tamhīd (24/109) also narrated it through Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd, from Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā ibn Ḥibbān, with this report. However, he said: from al-Walīd ibn al-Walīd, who said: “O Messenger of Allah, I experience unease.” He said: “When you lie down to sleep, say…” and then mentioned it. He added at the end: “For it will not harm you, and it is most unlikely to come near you.”

This differs from Ayyūb ibn Mūsā’s narration, for he said: “al-Walīd ibn al-Walīd,” and this is more correct. He was the brother of Khālid ibn al-Walīd. The narrators of its chain are trustworthy narrators of the two Ṣaḥīḥs, but its chain is interrupted. Al-Mundhirī said in al-Targhīb (2/263): “Muḥammad did not hear from al-Walīd.” Al-Ḥāfiẓ likewise said in al-Iṣābah, in these words: “It is interrupted, because Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā did not live to meet him.” This is the meaning of al-Bayhaqī’s statement immediately afterward: “This is mursal.”

Note: Then al-Ḥāfiẓ said after his preceding statement: “Abū Dāwūd also transmitted it through Ibn Isḥāq, from ʿAmr ibn Shuʿayb, from his father, from”