(1) Reported by Abu Dawud and Ibn Majah. Al-Tahawi states that the hadith is mass-transmitted (mutawatir). (*) (2) Al-Hakim (1/259) narrates it through Abdullah ibn Wahb—who said: “Iyyad ibn Abdullah al-Qurashi informed me, from Saʿid ibn Abi Saʿid al-Maqburi, from Abu Hurayrah”—and rules: “Authentic according to Muslim’s criteria,” a grading with which al-Dhahabi agrees; the assessment is sound. The same report is found in Abu Dawud (1/106), al-Hakim (260), and al-Bayhaqi (2/432) via the isnad of al-Awzaʿi: “Muhammad ibn al-Walid narrated to us, from Saʿid ibn Abi Saʿid al-Maqburi, from his father, from Abu Hurayrah,” with the wording: “When one of you is praying and removes his sandals, he must not inconvenience anyone with them; let him place them between his feet, or else pray wearing them.” This chain meets the conditions of the two Shaykhs (al-Bukhari and Muslim) and includes the additional narrator Abu Saʿid al-Maqburi, which is likely the more accurate version. It is also possible that Saʿid heard the hadith from his father and later transmitted it directly from Abu Hurayrah without mentioning him; such variations are frequent in the narrations. Allah knows best. A corroborating report from Abu Saʿid al-Khudri states: “When one of you comes to the mosque, let him turn his sandals over and inspect them; if he finds any impurity, let him wipe it off on the ground, then pray wearing them.” ____________________ (*) The full documentation of this hadith lies on a page missing from the Shaykh’s original manuscript; we have therefore reproduced the abridged citation from the printed edition of Sifat al-Salat.