2795 — “He led us in eight and seven prayer-units in Medina (1): the noon and afternoon prayers, and the sunset and night prayers.”

It was transmitted by al-Bukhari and Muslim, as well as Abu Awanah in their Sahih collections and others, through numerous routes from Hammad ibn Zayd, from Amr ibn Dinar, from Jabir ibn Zayd, from Ibn Abbas, who narrated it as a report attributed to the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace.

It is cited in Irwa al-Ghalil (3/36) and Sahih Abi Dawud (1099), to which whoever wishes may refer. The purpose here is to draw attention to two important errors. The first is that Abu al-Numan contradicted all the other routes and added at the end of the hadith: “Ayyub said: ‘Perhaps it was on a rainy night?’ He replied: ‘Perhaps.’” In my view, this addition is anomalous, since Abu al-Numan alone narrated it. His name was Muhammad ibn al-Fadl al-Sadusi, one of al-Bukhari’s shaykhs in this report, and his memory had deteriorated. However, al-Hafiz stated in the Introduction to Fath al-Bari that al-Bukhari heard from him well before his mental deterioration. Were it not for that, I would have said that this was a rejected addition.

Al-Hafiz judged it defective on another ground as well. He said in Fath al-Bari (2/23–24): “The possibility of rain was also maintained by Malik after he transmitted this hadith from Abu al-Zubayr, from Sa'id ibn Jubayr, from Ibn Abbas, with similar wording. After the words, ‘in Medina, without fear or travel,’ Malik said: ‘Perhaps it was during rain.’ However, Muslim and the compilers of the Sunan works transmitted it through Habib ibn Abi Thabit, from Sa'id ibn Jubayr, with the wording: ‘without fear or rain.’ Thus, it is ruled out that the combination mentioned was due to fear, travel, or rain.”

I say: This is further corroborated by Abu al-Zubayr’s narration from Sa'id, who said: