let all of these people reflect on the knowledge we have presented, so that they might find a cure for the ignorance and conceit that lodge within their souls and thus stand as a single rank alongside their Muslim brothers, for Allah’s hand is with the united group.

225 – “When a man enters his house he should say: ‘O Allah, I ask You for the best of entrances and the best of exits. In the name of Allah we enter, in the name of Allah we leave, and upon Allah, our Lord, we rely.’ He should then greet his family with salām.”

Abū Dāwūd recorded it in his Sunan (no. 5096) from Ismāʿīl, who said: “Dhamdham narrated to me, from Shurayḥ, from Abū Mālik al-Ashʿarī, who said that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said [the above].”

I say: This chain is authentic; every narrator in it is trustworthy. Ismāʿīl is Ibn ʿAyyāsh, and his narrations from the Syrians are sound—and this report is one of them—for Dhamdham (Dhamdham ibn Zurʿah ibn Thawb) was a Syrian from Ḥimṣ, and Shurayḥ is Ibn ʿUbayd al-Ḥaḍramī, likewise a reliable Ḥimṣī. Thus the whole chain is Syrian, from Ḥimṣ.

(Note) As you can see, the ḥadīth belongs to the invocations for entering one’s house; Abū Dāwūd headed it accordingly under “Chapter: What one says on entering a house.” Al-Nawawī, Ṣiddīq Ḥasan Khān, and others did the same. Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him), however, slipped when he classed the ḥadīth among the formulas for entering the mosque. In his “Refutation of al-Akhnaʾī” (p. 95) he said:

“Muḥammad ibn Sīrīn reported that when people entered the mosque they would say: ‘May Allah and His angels send blessings upon Muḥammad. Peace be upon you, O Prophet, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings. In the name of Allah we have entered, in the name of Allah we have departed, and upon Allah we rely.’ And when they left they would say the same.”

Ibn Taymiyyah then added: “I say: There is a Prophetic ḥadīth in Sunan Abī Dāwūd and elsewhere that upon entering the mosque one should say: ‘O Allah, I ask You for the best entry…’ ”

The editor, the respected Shaykh al-Yamānī, likewise assigned the ḥadīth to Sunan Abī Dāwūd without noticing the point we have just clarified.