Al-Munāwī likewise said this in al-Taysīr, without attributing it to anyone. Yet in his original work, al-Fayḍ, he wrote:
“Al-Bayhaqī said: Its chain of transmission is good.”
I strongly suspect that “al-Bayhaqī” is a textual corruption of “al-Haythamī.”
Note: Some virtuous people have mistakenly imagined that the hadith refers to pointing with one’s index finger and moving it during the tashahhud (testimony) of the prayer, and that ten good deeds are recorded for every movement. This is sheer error, further confirmed by the addition, “with his hand”; it does not say, “with his finger.” This is why al-Haythamī cited it under “The Chapter on Raising the Hands in Prayer.”
I say this while recognizing—indeed, while upholding—the established basis for moving the finger in the hadith of Wāʾil ibn Ḥujr. A number of imams authenticated it, without any dissenting voice, and Imam Aḥmad, Isḥāq, and others acted upon it. No consideration should be given to those contemporary scholars who have declared it weak on the grounds that it is anomalous and contradictory, for this is a baseless argument, stemming from their ignorance and their assumption that moving the finger conflicts with pointing with it. That is not so, as I have demonstrated in Tamām al-Minnah (218–222), with a thoroughness that may not be found elsewhere. All grace and favor belong to Allah. *
- “Whoever seeks this worldly life harms the Hereafter, and whoever seeks the Hereafter harms this worldly life. So sacrifice what perishes for what endures.”
Ibn Abī ʿĀṣim recorded it in al-Zuhd (78/161): Hadiyyah ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb informed us; al-Faḍl ibn Mūsā informed us; Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr informed us, from Abū Salamah, from Abū Hurayrah, who said: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said: ... and then cited it.
I say: This is a good chain of transmission. All its narrators are trustworthy and are among the transmitters included in al-Tahdhīb, notwithstanding