He wrote: “Its chain of transmission is questionable.” Al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar remarks in Tahdhib al-Tahdhib: “Al-Bukhari only meant that Abu al-Jawzaʾ did not actually hear from the likes of Ibn Masʿud or ʿAʾishah and others; he did not consider him unreliable.” Jaʿfar al-Firyabi states in Kitab al-Salat: “Muzahim ibn Saʿid narrated to us; Ibn al-Mubarak narrated to us; Ibrahim ibn Tahman narrated to us; Budayl al-ʿUqayli narrated to us from Abu al-Jawzaʾ, who said: ‘I sent a messenger to ʿAʾishah to ask her…,’ and he mentioned the hadith.” I conclude that the report therefore depends on an unidentified intermediary between Abu al-Jawzaʾ—whose given name is Aws ibn ʿAbd Allah—and ʿAʾishah. It seems that Muslim, may Allah have mercy on him, did not know of this chain that exposes the defect, so he recorded the hadith through the first route on the basis of his principle that a merely possible meeting suffices. Allah knows best. For the portion of the hadith that concerns us there is another chain: al-Bayhaqi (2/15) relates from Yusuf ibn Yaʿqub: Abu al-Rabiʿ told us; Hammad told us; Budayl told us, from ʿAbd Allah ibn Shuqayq, from ʿAʾishah: “The Messenger of Allah would begin the prayer with the takbir and with the recitation, al-hamdu lillahi rabbi l-ʿalamin (All praise belongs to Allah, Lord of the worlds).” I have not been able to identify this Abu al-Rabiʿ. As for Yusuf ibn Yaʿqub, he is al-Qadi, as al-Bayhaqi explicitly calls him elsewhere (2/32), and he is rated trustworthy (saduq) in Lisan al-Mizan. Second hadith: Muhammad ibn ʿAmr ibn ʿAtaʾ said, “I heard Abu Humayd al-Saʿidi say: Whenever the Messenger of Allah stood for prayer, he faced the qibla, raised his hands, and said: ‘Allahu akbar.’”