he replied: “That his record is merely looked at and he is then excused; for anyone whose account is painstakingly examined on that Day, O Aisha, is ruined. Moreover, every misfortune that strikes a believer— even a thorn that pricks him—Allah uses to expiate some of his sins.” Ahmad recorded this wording (6/48), as did al-Hakim (1/255; 4/249-50) through the chain: Muhammad ibn Ishaq → Abd al-Wahid ibn Hamza ibn Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr → Ubad ibn Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr → Aisha. The chain is sound. Al-Hakim’s verdict, “Authentic according to Muslim’s criteria,” which al-Dhahabi endorsed, is not accurate, as has been shown repeatedly. (4) The same supplication is also reported from Ammar ibn Yasir. Al-Nasa’i (1/192), Ibn Nasr in Qiyam al-Layl (no. 143), Ibn Khuzayma in Kitab al-Tawhid (p. 9), and al-Hakim (1/524) all transmit—through Hammad ibn Zayd → Ata ibn al-Sa’ib → his father → Ammar—that Ammar once led a prayer and shortened it. When some people remarked, “You prayed too briefly,” he replied, “I recited in it certain supplications that I heard from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ,” and he quoted them. Al-Hakim judged the chain sound and al-Dhahabi concurred. Their ruling is correct, for although Ata ibn al-Sa’ib’s memory declined later, Hammad ibn Zayd heard from him before that, which is why al-Hafiz al-Iraqi stated in his Takhrij al-Ihya (1/288), “Its chain is good.”