with ‘Uthman; I never heard any of them pronounce it, so do not pronounce it. When you recite, begin with: al-hamdu lillahi Rabbi l-‘alamin (All praise belongs to Allah, Lord of the worlds). Imam Ahmad transmits it in this wording; he says (4/85): Isma‘il narrated to us; Sa‘id ibn Iyas al-Jurayri narrated to us from Qays ibn ‘Abayah, from Ibn ‘Abd Allah ibn Mughaffal—Yazid ibn ‘Abd Allah—who said… and he cited the report. Al-Tirmidhi (2/12–13), Ibn Majah (1/271), and al-Tahawi (1/119) also record it, all of them through Isma‘il—i.e., Ibn Ibrahim, known as Ibn ‘Ulayyah—without mentioning the name of Ibn ‘Abd Allah. Al-Nasa’i (1/144) and al-Bayhaqi (2/52) likewise transmit it via ‘Uthman ibn Ghiyath, who said: Abu Na‘amah al-Hanafi related it to me; Abu Na‘amah is Qays ibn ‘Abayah. From this same chain Ahmad (5/54) gives an abridged version: “Our father, whenever he heard one of us say: bismillah al-Rahman al-Rahim (In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful), would say: ‘Ihi, ihi! I prayed behind the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, Abu Bakr, and ‘Umar, and I never heard any of them say: bismillah al-Rahman al-Rahim.’” He then records it (5/55) through Wahib, from Sa‘id ibn Iyas, with the wording: “They would not open the recitation with: bismillah al-Rahman al-Rahim.” Al-Bukhari includes it in Juz’ al-Qira’ah (12) through Yazid ibn Harun, from al-Jurayri, in shortened form: “They used to recite: al-hamdu lillahi Rabbi l-‘alamin.” Al-Tirmidhi comments: “A hasan (good) hadith.” The annotator adds: “Ahmad’s isnad is sahih; it explicitly names Yazid ibn ‘Abd Allah.” I say: And what of that? Is a mere explicit mention enough to declare him reliable when no scholar has ever authenticated him? Granted, two narrators other than Abu Na‘amah have reported this hadith from him: ‘Abd Allah ibn Yazid—who left him unnamed—and Abu Sufyan Tarif ibn Shihab—who did name him.