al-Dāraquṭnī’s version. This explicit statement is a point of benefit for which I have included the hadith here. ʿAbd al-Ḥaqq al-Ishbīlī cited it in his Aḥkām (no. 1753—edited by me), by way of al-Dāraquṭnī, and made no comment on it, thereby indicating that he considered it authentic!

467 — “Frequently recite the testimony, ‘There is no deity worthy of worship but Allah,’ before you are prevented from saying it; and prompt your dying ones to say it.”

Abū Yaʿlā transmitted it in his Musnad (4/1460—Maktab facsimile), as did Ibn ʿAdī in al-Kāmil (folio 204/2), from him and from others; Ibn Ḥamṣah in Juzʾ al-Biṭāqah (folio 69/1); al-Khaṭīb in History of Baghdad (3/38); and Ibn ʿAsākir in History of Damascus (17/207/2), through several chains from Ḍimām ibn Ismāʿīl, from Mūsā ibn Wardān, from Abū Hurayrah, in a report attributed to the Prophet.

I say: Its chain of transmission is good. Al-Dhahabī said in al-Mīzān: “His hadith are acceptable; some declared him weak without proof ... Ibn ʿAdī included him in his al-Kāmil and listed good hadiths of his.”

I say: Al-Dhahabī then cited a selection of those good hadiths, and this is one of them.

Al-Ḥāfiẓ ʿAbd al-Ḥaqq al-Ishbīlī likewise indicated that he regarded it as good when, after citing it from Ibn ʿAdī’s narration, he said in his Aḥkām (no. 1774): “This Ḍimām was devoted to worship, truthful, and acceptable in hadith.”

Al-Ḥāfiẓ said in al-Taqrīb: “Truthful, though he sometimes erred.” He said the same of his teacher, Mūsā ibn Wardān.

In al-Jāmiʿ al-Ṣaghīr, the hadith is attributed to Abū Yaʿlā and Ibn ʿAdī, yet marked as weak! Al-Manāwī took issue with this, saying in his commentary: