and some are good due to corroborating evidence, yet he clings to a weak, rejected report—namely, this report of Abu Bakr as transmitted by Ishaq. Moreover, another narration has been transmitted from him which agrees with the narrations of the group and is sounder than his first, interrupted narration. Ma‘mar narrated from ‘Abd Allah ibn Abi Bakr ibn Muhammad ibn ‘Amr ibn Hazm, from his father, from his grandfather, ‘Amr ibn Hazm, who said: “Gabriel came and led the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) in prayer...” The hadith contains no mention of the number of rak‘ahs.

It was narrated by Ishaq ibn Rahuyah in his Musnad, as cited in Nasb al-Rayah (1/225) and al-Matalib al-‘Aliyah (fol. 9/2), through the route of ‘Abd al-Razzaq. It is also found in al-Musannaf (1/534), although an omission has occurred in its chain of transmission. Al-Hafiz likewise said immediately after it in al-Matalib: “This is a good chain of transmission, except that Muhammad ibn ‘Amr ibn Hazm did not hear from the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), due to his young age. If the pronoun in ‘his grandfather’ refers to Abu Bakr, then it depends on whether Abu Bakr heard from ‘Amr.”

I say: It is explicitly stated—as you can see—that it is from his grandfather; thus, it is interrupted, because Muhammad ibn ‘Amr did not live to meet him. Yet it is authentic by virtue of the preceding corroborating reports, for it contains none of the objectionable material found in Abu Bakr’s first narration.

Another instance of concealment in transmission by al-Ghumari—may Allah guide him—is his statement following his aforementioned hadith from Abu Mas‘ud, which contains the rejected mention of the number of rak‘ahs: “Al-Bayhaqi also narrated it in al-Ma‘rifah through the route of Ayyub ibn ‘Utbah: Abu Bakr ibn ‘Amr ibn Hazm narrated to us from ‘Urwah ibn al-Zubayr, from Ibn Abi Mas‘ud al-Ansari, from his father.”

I say: His concealment of the matter from readers has two aspects. The first is that he remained silent about its chain of transmission, thereby giving the impression that there was nothing wrong with it and that al-Bayhaqi had not commented on it,