Al-Haythami said in Majmaʿ al-Zawaʾid (7/313): “Ahmad narrated it, and its chain includes Mujalid ibn Saʿid. Al-Nasaʾi declared him trustworthy, while a group of scholars declared him weak; the rest of its narrators are trustworthy.” I say: Al-Nasaʾi declared him trustworthy on only one occasion. On another occasion, he said, “He is not strong,” as stated in al-Tahdhib. He also included him in his book al-Duʿafaʾ wa al-Matrukun and said (no. 552): “A weak Kufan.”

Khalaf ibn al-Walid is trustworthy and is among the narrators cited in al-Taʿjil. Ibrahim ibn Ziyad Sabalan corroborated him, saying: “ʿAbbad ibn ʿAbbad related to us,” with this report, but without the words: “and the believers will surely strike them ...” Al-Lalakaʾi recorded it in Usul al-Sunnah (1/210/342). In al-Jamiʿ al-Kabir, al-Suyuti attributed it to Ahmad alone, and it appears there as: “... until Allah is no longer worshipped.” It seems that the copyist corrupted the wording, “until no name is worshipped for Allah.” Al-Lalakaʾi cited it as evidence that the name and the named entity are one and the same—and it would indeed be an excellent proof, were it authentic with this wording. Allah knows best.

2753 — “Say: ‘O Allah, Knower of the unseen and the seen, Originator of the heavens and the earth, Lord and Sovereign of all things, I bear witness that none has the right to be worshipped but You. I seek refuge in You from the evil of my own self, and from the evil of Satan and his associationism.’ Say it when you rise in the morning, when you enter the evening, and when you lie down to sleep.”

An authentic hadith, narrated by Yaʿla ibn ʿAta, who said: I heard ʿAmr ibn ʿAsim al-Thaqafi say: I heard Abu Hurayrah say: Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, may Allah be pleased with him, said: “O Messenger of Allah, instruct me in something to say when I rise in the morning and when I enter the evening.” He then mentioned it.