“It was recorded by al-Tabarani in al-Mu‘jam al-Kabir, and its chain includes Muhammad ibn Mus‘ab al-Qarqasani, whom Ibn Ma‘in and others declared weak, while Ahmad deemed him trustworthy.”

I say: Qays ibn al-Rabi‘ is weak as well.

However, it has a corroborating report attributed to the Prophet. Abu Ya‘la said in his Musnad—in its longer recension:

Ibrahim ibn Sa‘id narrated to us: Yahya ibn Salih narrated to us, from Jabir ibn Ghanim al-Salafi, from Abu Suhayb, from his father Suhayb, may Allah be pleased with him, who said: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said:

“A man’s voluntary prayer where people do not see him is worth twenty-five times his prayer performed in people’s sight.”

Al-Daylami also recorded it in Musnad al-Firdaws (2/244), through Abu al-Shaykh, from ‘Isam ibn Khalid, who said: Jabir ibn Ghanim narrated to us: Ibn Suhayb narrated to us, from his father, from his grandfather, attributed to the Prophet, with the same wording.

I say: Jabir ibn Ghanim and those below him are trustworthy, but those above him—Abu Suhayb, or Ibn Suhayb, along with his father and grandfather—I have not identified. Perhaps Suhayb is the grandfather of Dimrah ibn Habib ibn Suhayb mentioned in the chain of transmission of the hadith cited under this heading, but I have not found a biographical notice for him. And Allah knows best.

Yet the hadith cited under this heading corroborates its meaning. Al-Bayhaqi recorded it in Shu‘ab al-Iman (3/173/3259), through Abu ‘Awanah, from Mansur, from Hilal ibn Yisaf, from Dimrah ibn Habib, from a man among the Companions of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, who said … and then mentioned it as a report attributed to the Companion, with the wording:

“The superiority of a man’s prayer in his home over his prayer where people see him is like the superiority of an obligatory prayer over a voluntary one.”

Al-Mundhiri likewise cited it in al-Targhib (1/159), but added after his words: “… from