al-Fadakī had accurately preserved its connected chain from ʿUmar. Although al-Dāraquṭnī declared it defective on the grounds that it was mursal, as stated above, we do not know who the opposing narrator was. If he was more reliable than al-Fadakī—as al-Dāraquṭnī’s critique indicates—then it is mursal and thus suitable as corroboration. Indeed, the mursal report is accepted as evidence by some scholars; at the very least, then, it is suitable as corroboration for the hadith under discussion.

As for al-Haythamī’s statement in Majmaʿ al-Zawāʾid (1/153): “Al-Bazzār narrated it, and its chain includes Muḥammad ibn Ṣadaqah al-Fadakī. It says in al-Mīzān: ‘His hadith is rejected.’” I say: He means another hadith that is mentioned in al-Mīzān. This one, however, is not rejected, for, as you have seen, al-Ḥākim narrated it by a route other than that of al-Fadakī, through his previously mentioned chain: from ʿAbd al-Wāḥid ibn Abī ʿAwn, from al-Qāsim ibn Muḥammad, from Ibn ʿUmar. Yet he included it in Majmaʿ al-Zawāʾid (9/370), through al-Ṭabarānī’s narration—meaning in al-Kabīr (13/192)—from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī ʿAwn, with a double break in the chain, and said: “Its chain is good.”

Al-Ḥāfiẓ also mentioned it in Ibn al-Arqam’s biographical entry in al-Iṣābah, through al-Baghawī’s narration by way of al-Fadakī, with a connected chain and in similar wording, and made no comment on it. In sum, the hadith is sound in light of its two routes. And Allah knows best.

2839 — “Remember death in your prayer, for when a man remembers death in his prayer, he is likely to perform his prayer well. Pray as one who does not expect to pray another prayer, and beware of every matter for which one must apologize.”

Al-Daylamī narrated it in Musnad al-Firdaws (1/26/2), through Abū al-Shaykh Ibn Ḥayyān: Ibn Abī ʿĀṣim narrated to us; my father narrated to us; Shabīb ibn Bishr narrated to us, from Anas, who said: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said it.