The other is that al-Bayhaqi narrated the hadith through an authentic chain of transmission from Shayban ibn ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Nahwi, from Qatadah, who said: “Anas ibn Malik told us that Malik ibn Sa‘sa‘ah related to them”—and he then mentioned the lengthy hadith of the Ascension, which includes the prescription of the five prayers. Qatadah said: “And al-Hasan—that is, al-Basri—told us that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, ...”
I say: He then related the hadith similarly to the narration of the two unknown narrators, but without the instruction to call the adhan, and it included the four-rak‘ah designation of the three prayers. Al-Bayhaqi then said:
“This hadith, and what has been narrated to the same effect, indicate that this took place in Mecca after the Ascension, and that the five prayers were prescribed at that time in their respective numbers. Yet it has been reliably established from Aishah, may Allah be pleased with her, that the contrary is the case.”
Al-Bayhaqi then cited the previously mentioned hadith of Ma‘mar in al-Bukhari’s narration, as well as the hadith of Dawud ibn Abi Hind through a third route—one which I had no need to mention there, given the two preceding routes.
I say: The point of contradiction is that Shayban al-Nahwi made clear in his narration from Qatadah, from Anas, that it contains no mention of the four-rak‘ah designation which Qatadah narrated from al-Hasan as a mursal report. This means that al-Hasan added it to Anas’s narration, so that report is rejected on this basis. How much more so when its contradiction of the authentic hadiths already referred to is added to this?
- As for his third hadith, which he cited through Sa‘id, from Qatadah, from al-Hasan, you have already learned the answer to it above. Thus, it is a vile act of concealment for him to say: “A mursal report with an authentic chain of transmission; together with Anas’s hadith, it constitutes proof, as has been established in the sciences of hadith and legal theory!”
I say: He is referring to their statement—the wording being that of al-Nawawi in his Taqrib (1/198, with the commentary al-Tadrib):