It is analogous to his statement: “The hand is severed for a quarter-dinar or more.” Ibn Hibban, al-Qurtubi and others have claimed a consensus that nothing beyond that amount is obligatory. Al-Hafiz (2/193) comments: “This is open to objection, for the opposite view is authentically reported from some Companions and those after them, as transmitted by Ibn al-Munzir and others. Perhaps what they meant is that the matter ultimately settled on that opinion. Abu Hurayra (may Allah be pleased with him) said: ‘If you recite no more than Umm al-Quran (the Mother of the Quran, i.e., al-Fatihah) it suffices; and if you add to it, that is better.’” The report is recorded by the two Shaykhs and others. Although it is technically mawquf, al-Hafiz (2/200) says, “It carries the ruling of marfuʿ.” I add: it has also been transmitted explicitly as marfuʿ, as noted above, and this is confirmed by the fact that Abu Hurayra himself is among those who narrated the additional wording, so he is better informed about his own narration than anyone else. This is further supported by the hadith of Ibn Abbas stating that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ prayed two rakʿas in which he recited nothing except Fatihat al-Kitab. It was reported by al-Bayhaqi (2/61), Ahmad (1/282), and likewise by Ibn Khuzayma, Abu Yaʿla and al-Tabarani in al-Kabir through the route of Hanzala al-Sadosi from him. The isnad is weak, though the remaining transmitters are reliable narrators of the two Shaykhs. (1) It is the hadith of Abu Hurayra, and it has reached us through several chains: The first: via al-Ala ibn Abd al-Rahman ibn Yaʿqub, who heard Abu al-Saʾib, the freedman of Hisham ibn Zuhra, say: “I heard Abu Hurayra say: I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say … .” Malik (1/106) recorded it from him, and through his route it was transmitted by Muslim (2/9–10), Abu Awana (2/126), al-Bukhari in Juzʾ al-Qiraʾa (8) and in Afʿal al-ʿIbad (74), and by Abu Dawud