ibn Musa, from Jarir; and this Yusuf is Abu Ya‘qub al-Kufi, one of al-Bukhari’s shaykhs. The correct statement, therefore, is: “The narrators of both are narrators of the Sahih collections.”

Moreover, he failed to attribute it to Ahmad, even though Ahmad was among the sources he had undertaken to cover! He likewise failed to mention it in his other work, Ghayat al-Maqsad fi Zawa’id al-Musnad (folio 51/2). Similarly, the annotator of Abu Ya‘la’s Musnad failed to attribute it to Ahmad. Neither he nor the annotator of al-Ihsan (4/504/1623–1624) noticed the defect of concealment in transmission, which precludes declaring it authentic, nor the anomalous nature of its text, which contradicts the narration of Ahmad, his son, and al-Bazzar, as well as all the other hadiths. So praise be to Allah, by whose favor righteous deeds are brought to completion.

It remains to discuss the merit of prayer in the Mosque of Iliya—that is, al-Aqsa Mosque. May Allah restore it to the Muslims, along with all the lands of Palestine. It is mentioned only in the first route. The most authentic hadith concerning the merit of prayer there is the hadith of Abu Dharr—may Allah be pleased with him—who said:

“We were discussing, while we were with the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), which was superior: the Messenger of Allah’s Mosque or the mosque at Bayt al-Maqdis. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: ‘One prayer in this mosque of mine is better than four prayers there, and what an excellent place of prayer it is ...’”

Al-Tahawi recorded it in Mushkil al-Athar (1/248), as did al-Hakim (4/509), al-Bayhaqi in al-Shu‘ab (3/486/4145), and al-Tabarani in al-Awsat (2/220/1/8395—according to my numbering). He said: “No one narrated it from Qatadah except al-Hajjaj and Sa‘id ibn Bashir; from al-Hajjaj, it was narrated solely by Ibrahim