then al-Bukhari also cited it, transmitting through Ismail b. Abi Uways, from his father, from Musa b. Ibrahim, from his father, from Salama, thereby inserting one extra narrator into the chain. Al-Hafiz comments: “This may be a case of an additional link being slipped into an otherwise continuous isnad, or the explicit mention of hearing in ‘Attaf’s version may be an error. This is the point that led al-Bukhari—who quoted the report only in suspended form in his Sahih—to say, ‘Its chain is open to discussion.’ Those who judged the hadith sound, however, relied on the version of al-Darawardi and treated ‘Attaf’s report as corroborative because its chain is likewise uninterrupted.” (1) With the dotted consonant placed before the doubled undotted one; it follows the pattern nasara. The intended sense is: “Tie the mouth of the waist-cloth so that your private part is not exposed, and then perform the prayer in it.” (Comment by al-Sindi.) I add: As for the report recorded by al-Hakim (1/250)—and, through him, by al-Bayhaqi (2/240)—via al-Walid b. Muslim, who said: “Zuhayr b. Muhammad al-Tamimi narrated to us; Zayd b. Aslam narrated to us: I saw Ibn ‘Umar pray with his izar untied. I asked him about it, and he replied, ‘I saw the Messenger of Allah do this.’” Al-Hakim ruled it “sahih according to the criteria of the two Shaykhs,” and al-Dhahabi agreed. The grading is acceptable, yet al-Bayhaqi remarked: “Zuhayr b. Muhammad is the sole transmitter of this report. I was informed that Abu ‘Isa al-Tirmidhi said: I asked Muhammad—meaning al-Bukhari—about Zuhayr’s hadith, and he answered, ‘I avoid this shaykh; it is as though his narration is fabricated. In my view this is not the Zuhayr b. Muhammad [well known in Khurasan].’ Ahmad b. Hanbal likewise deemed the man weak and said: ‘This is a shaykh whose name has probably been reversed.’ Al-Bukhari hinted at some of this in his Tarikh and related the same practice from Ibn ‘Umar through other chains that do not contain this isnad.” End of quotation.