2762 — “Whoever says two hundred times in a day [one hundred in the morning and one hundred in the evening]: ‘None has the right to be worshipped but Allah alone, without partner. His is the dominion, and His is all praise, and He is capable of all things,’ shall not be surpassed by anyone who came before him, nor caught up with by anyone who comes after him, unless he does deeds better than his.”

It was recorded by al-Nasa’i in al-Yawm wa al-Laylah (576 and 577), as well as Ibn al-Sunni (73), Ibn al-A‘rabi in al-Mu‘jam (folio 216/1), and al-Hakim (1/500), who said: “One hundred”! It was also recorded by Ahmad (2/185 and 214) and al-Khatib in al-Tarikh (3/25), through several chains from ‘Amr ibn Shu‘ayb, from his father, from his grandfather, that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said it.

I say: This is a good chain of transmission, owing to the well-known difference of opinion regarding the narration of ‘Amr ibn Shu‘ayb from his father, from his grandfather. For this reason, he said in al-Fath (11/202): “Its chain is authentic up to ‘Amr.” Al-Haythami said in al-Majma‘ (10/86): “It was narrated by Ahmad and al-Tabarani, except that he said: ‘Every day.’ The narrators of Ahmad are trustworthy, whereas among al-Tabarani’s narrators are some whom I do not know.”

I say: The hadith does not mean that he should say it two hundred times at one time, as some contemporary writers who have written on the sunnah-status of prayer beads have assumed! Rather, they are to be divided between the morning and the evening. This is stated explicitly in Shu‘bah’s narration from ‘Amr ibn Shu‘ayb, with the wording: “Whoever says ... one hundred times in the morning and one hundred times in the evening ...”