2953 — “Whenever he was impressed by a man’s bearing, he would instruct him to pray.”

It was narrated by al-Bukhārī in al-Tārīkh (1/1/180), al-Bazzār (1/453/716), Abū Nuʿaym in al-Ḥilyah (1/343), and al-Khaṭīb (4/360), through Yaḥyā ibn ʿAbbād, Abū ʿAbbād, who said: Muḥammad ibn ʿUthmān narrated to us from Thābit, from Anas, attributed to the Prophet.

I say: This is a chain of transmission whose narrators are trustworthy, apart from Muḥammad ibn ʿUthmān al-Wāsiṭī. In his biographical notice, al-Bukhārī mentioned him and said: “He heard from Thābit al-Bunānī, from Anas ibn Mālik. This was reported by ʿAbd al-Malik al-Jaddī, from Saʿīd ibn Khālid, from Muḥammad.” I say: He did not mention any negative criticism or accreditation concerning him. In al-Mīzān it states: “Al-Azdī said: ‘Weak.’” As for Ibn Ḥibbān, he included him in al-Thiqāt (7/438) and said: “He narrates from Thābit al-Bunānī, and Abū ʿAwānah narrated from him.”

I say: Three men narrated from him: Yaḥyā ibn ʿAbbād; Abū ʿAwānah, whose name was al-Waḍḍāḥ al-Yashkurī—both of whom are trustworthy narrators of the two Ṣaḥīḥs; and Saʿīd ibn Khālid al-Khuzāʿī, who is weak. A contemporary of his was Muḥammad ibn ʿUthmān ibn Sayyār al-Qurashī al-Baṣrī, who settled in Wāsiṭ. They mentioned that he narrated from Thābit al-Bunānī, Dhiyāl ibn ʿUbayd ibn Ḥanẓalah, and others. A group narrated from him, including Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr al-Muqaddamī, as will come in the following hadith, and Abū ʿAbbād Yaḥyā ibn ʿAbbād, mentioned in this hadith’s chain of transmission. It appears to me that he may be the same person. If so, the hadith is authentic; otherwise, it is good. And Allah, exalted is He, knows best.