Saʿid the muʾadhdhin transmitted it, saying: “Fitr b. Khalifa narrated to us from Abu al-Tufayl, on the authority of both of them.” Al-Hakim then remarked, “Its chain is sound, and I am unaware of any narrator therein who has been criticized.” Al-Dhahabi rebutted: “Rather, this report is flimsy, almost fabricated, for ʿAbd al-Rahman is known for aberrant narrations, and Saʿid—if he is al-Kurayzi—is weak; if not, he is unknown.” Hence Ibn Hajar says in al-Diraya (p. 71): “Its isnad is weak.” Al-Bayhaqi also cites it from al-Hakim in al-Maʿrifa with the same chain and wording, adding: “Its isnad is weak.” In short, these three hadiths are the best-known and most explicit pieces of evidence adduced for reciting the basmala aloud, yet you have seen that all of them are weak—save for one route of the hadith of Anas, which, however, does not state that he recited it aloud during prayer. Ibn al-Qayyim therefore writes in Zad al-Maʿad (1/73): “The Prophet ﷺ would at times pronounce ‘Bismillah al-Rahman al-Rahim’ aloud, but he concealed it more often than he voiced it. There is no doubt that he did not do so consistently five times every day and night, whether resident or travelling; such a practice could not have escaped the rightly guided caliphs, the majority of his Companions, and the people of his city in the virtuous generations. That is virtually impossible, which is why one must cling to vague expressions and weak reports: the authentic narrations are not explicit, and the explicit ones are not authentic.” I add: the end of his statement contradicts its beginning; for if, as he rightly maintains, no sound hadith explicitly affirms reciting it aloud, how can he assert with certainty that the Prophet ﷺ sometimes did so? His teacher Ibn Taymiyya was more precise, stating in the Fatawa (1/79) on this question: “It is possible that he occasionally recited it aloud, or that he used to do so in the early period and then left it.”