the two Shaykhs. However, al-Bukhārī narrated from Abū Ḥassān—who was al-Aʿraj—only in suspended form. His name was Muslim ibn ʿAbd Allāh. Ibn Khuzaymah deemed it authentic, as al-Ḥāfiẓ stated in Fatḥ al-Bārī (1/213) and endorsed.

From the source documentation we have cited, you can see al-Ḥākim’s error in declaring, regarding Abū Hilāl’s hadith: “Its chain of transmission is authentic!”—even though al-Dhahabī agreed with him.

The same applies to al-Haythamī, who said (1/191):

“Al-Bazzār, Aḥmad, and al-Ṭabarānī in al-Muʿjam al-Kabīr narrated it, and its chain of transmission is authentic.”

This is erroneous, for the reasons explained above—unless he meant Aḥmad’s chain through Hishām. But that is exceedingly unlikely in light of his known style, especially since Abū Dāwūd also narrated it; thus, it does not fall within the scope of al-Majmaʿ.

His statement elsewhere (8/264), however:

“Aḥmad narrated it, and its chain of transmission is good,”

may be correct, were it not for Abū Hilāl’s contradiction of Hishām al-Dastuwāʾī.

Know that nighttime conversation—meaning talking at night—has been prohibited in more than one hadith from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). That is why I have entitled this section “The Permissibility of Nighttime Conversation Concerning Knowledge,” on the basis of this hadith. Accordingly, the nighttime conversations in which most people today engage in front of television and similar things are among the trials that have afflicted the Islamic world in the present age. We ask Allah for safety from every trial, both outward and hidden. Indeed, He is All-Hearing, Responsive.

Among the hadiths to which I have alluded is the Prophet’s saying (peace and blessings be upon him):

“There is no nighttime conversation except for one who is praying or a traveler.”