and Ibn al-Sunni (246/763), Ibn Majah (3850), al-Bayhaqi in Shuʿab al-Iman (Branches of Faith) (3/338–339) and al-Asmaʾ wa’l-Sifat (The Names and Attributes) (p. 55), al-Asbahani in al-Targhib (2/728/1772), and Ahmad (6/170, 182, 183, and 208) all narrated it through various chains from Ibn Buraydah—or, as some of them said, Abdullah ibn Buraydah—from Aisha, who said:

I said, “O Messenger of Allah, if I come to know which night is Laylat al-Qadr, what should I say during it?” He said: … and then mentioned it.

The wording is that of al-Nasaʾi and al-Tirmidhi, who said: “A good, authentic hadith.”

Al-Mundhiri endorsed this in al-Targhib (4/144), as did al-Nawawi in al-Adhkar and al-Majmuʿ (6/447). It deserves this grading, for Abdullah ibn Buraydah was trustworthy and was among the narrators relied upon by the two Shaykhs.

It has, however, been criticized on grounds that do not undermine it. Al-Daraqutni said in his Sunan (3/233)—and al-Bayhaqi followed him (7/118)—concerning another hadith of Abdullah ibn Buraydah (1):

“He did not hear anything from Aisha!”

That is what they said! For a period of time, I too followed them in declaring the hadith in question defective on account of a break in its chain, in my treatise Critique of Hadith Texts (p. 45). But I have now retracted that view, having realized that there is nothing to support the aforementioned denial. Indeed, it contradicts the established principle in the science of hadith terminology that contemporaneity is sufficient to establish a connected chain, provided it is free from