that prohibit raising one’s gaze during prayer, recorded in the two Sahihs and elsewhere. Many excellent examples of them may be found in al-Targhib (1/188–189), and I have traced some of them in Sahih Abi Dawud (847–848). It does not appear to me that this prohibition is restricted to supplication during prayer, to the exclusion of supplication outside it. Rather, the apparent meaning is that raising one’s gaze is prohibited in both cases. And Allah knows best.

Note: In al-Mishkat (1/749 and 750), al-Khatib al-Tabrizi attributed Abu Dawud’s anomalous narration concerning raising one’s gaze to heaven to Ibn Majah as well. This is sheer error.

In al-Kalim al-Tayyib (49/59), Ibn Taymiyyah attributed it to the four Sunan compilers. This is manifestly lax, since none besides Abu Dawud reports the aforementioned raising of the gaze. Ibn al-Qayyim followed him in this in al-Wabil al-Sayyib (p. 132, ed. Shaykh Abd al-Qadir), and the error escaped his notice, even though he himself had traced the hadith, citing its locations in the works of the four compilers by volume and page. He even authenticated its chain of transmission! Al-Ansari, in his edition (p. 214), passed it over without comment. Such, then, is the much-vaunted critical verification! *

3164—“Whenever he sat in a gathering or performed a prayer, he would say certain words. Aishah asked him about those words, and he said:

‘If he had spoken good, they would seal it until the Day of Resurrection; but if he had spoken otherwise, they would be an expiation for him: Glory and praise be to You, O Allah. None has the right to be worshipped but You. I seek Your forgiveness and repent to You.’”

Al-Nasai recorded it in Amal al-Yawm wa al-Laylah (309/400), and through his route al-Hafiz recorded it at the end of his Fath al-Bari (13/546): Abu Bakr ibn Ishaq informed us; Abu Salamah al-Khuza'i, Mansur ibn Salamah, informed us; Khallad ibn Sulayman informed us—Abu Salamah said: “And he was among”