(Note): In al-Du‘afa’, the hadith appears with the wording, “the Zuhr prayer,” in place of, “he performed the Zuhr prayer.” Its editor, Mahmud Ibrahim Zayid, said: “This is how it appears in the manuscript, and I have not found it in any of the references available to me. It seems that the original was: ‘Then he performed the Zuhr prayer.’”

I say: This is what textual verification has come to! Do you not have, at the very least, Sunan Abu Dawud to use in correcting it?! The correct wording is: “he performed the Zuhr prayer.” I think that the word “he performed” was corrupted by the copyist into “prayer”!

2781 — “He would converse at night with Abu Bakr concerning a matter affecting the Muslims, and I was with them.” That is, Umar.

Al-Tirmidhi (no. 169), Ibn Hibban (276), al-Bayhaqi (1/452), and Ahmad (1/25) narrated it through Abu Mu‘awiyah, from al-A‘mash, from Ibrahim, from ‘Alqamah, from Umar ibn al-Khattab, who said: He then mentioned it.

Al-Tirmidhi said: “A good hadith. Al-Hasan ibn ‘Ubayd Allah also narrated this hadith from Ibrahim, from ‘Alqamah, from a man of Ja‘fi called Qays, or Ibn Qays, from Umar ibn al-Khattab, from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, in the course of a lengthy account.”

I say: Al-Bayhaqi gave its chain in connected form through ‘Abd al-Wahid ibn Ziyad, who said: Al-Hasan ibn ‘Ubayd Allah narrated it to us through this chain. He said: “He then related the account with the same meaning, except that he did not mention the account of the nighttime conversation.” Ahmad (1/38) likewise gave it in connected form through this route. However, he also narrated it through Abu Mu‘awiyah, who said—joining it to the first narration: