of the biographical works on narrators; nor could I find his father, Ṣāliḥ ibn ʿAlī, either. Thus, it is a chain shrouded in obscurity.

Worse than it is the report narrated to us by Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq al-Asadī: al-Awzāʿī narrated from ʿUrwah ibn Ruwaym al-Lakhmī, who said: “I heard Abū Umāmah al-Bāhilī narrate it as a Prophetic hadith ...” He then cited it in wording similar to the hadith of Ḥafṣ ibn ʿUmar al-Ḥawḍī.

Al-Aṣbahānī recorded it in al-Targhīb (1/314/712).

I say: Its defect lies in this al-Asadī—who is al-ʿUkāshī. Al-Dāraquṭnī said: “He fabricates hadiths.”

The best-known hadith on this subject is the hadith of Darrāj, from Abū al-Haytham, from Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī, that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“Recite abundantly the enduring righteous deeds.”

It was asked, “What are they, Messenger of Allah?” He replied:

“The religious creed.”

It was asked, “What is it, Messenger of Allah?” He replied:

“The takbīr (saying, ‘Allah is Most Great’) ...”

He then mentioned the four [phrases], adding: “There is neither might nor power except through Allah.”

It was recorded by Ibn Ḥibbān (2332), al-Ḥākim (1/512), al-Bayhaqī in Shuʿab al-Īmān (1/425/605), al-Ṭabarī in his exegesis (15/167), al-Baghawī in Sharḥ al-Sunnah (5/64), Aḥmad (3/75), and Abū Yaʿlā (2/524). Al-Ḥākim said: “This is the most authentic chain of transmission among the Egyptians!”