(Second Note:) After attributing the hadith of Asma’ to Abu Dawud, al-Nasa’i, and Ibn Majah, al-Mundhiri stated in al-Targhib (3/43): “Al-Tabarani also narrated it in al-Du‘a’; in his version: ‘Let him say three times: Allah is my Lord; I associate nothing with Him.’ He added: ‘This was the last statement of Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz when he died.’”

Al-Shawkani reproduced this attribution in his aforementioned commentary, but reversed its order, saying: “Al-Tabarani added in al-Du‘a’: ‘three times’; Ibn Majah also transmitted it.” This gives the impression that Ibn Majah’s version contains the addition, but that is not so. Moreover, I had not come across its chain of transmission, since I had not obtained al-Tabarani’s book al-Du‘a’, and I did not think it was authentic. Allah knows best.

Later, I was fortunate to obtain a good photocopied edition of al-Du‘a’. One of our kind brothers among the students of the Islamic University in Madinah—may Allah reward him well—gave it to me along with other valuable photocopies. Thereupon, I found that the chain of transmission for that addition is not authentic, just as I had thought. Al-Tabarani said (folio 117/1–2): “Muhammad ibn Zakariyya al-Ghallabi narrated to us: Ibrahim ibn Bashshar al-Ramadi informed us: Sufyan ibn Uyaynah narrated to us, from Mis‘ar, from Abd al-Aziz ibn Umar, from his father Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz ibn Marwan, from Asma’,” with the narration and addition cited by al-Mundhiri.

This is due to al-Mundhiri’s laxity, which I explained in the introduction to my book Sahih al-Targhib, for this al-Ghallabi used to fabricate hadiths. His chain of transmission and the text of his hadith were contradicted: al-Tabarani also narrated it, as did al-Nasa’i in ‘Amal al-Yawm wa al-Laylah (650), with an authentic chain of transmission, from Jarir, from Mis‘ar, who said: “From Abd al-Aziz ibn Umar, from his father,” and he then related it in this manner as a mursal report, with the wording: “seven times.”