He added: “The preferable course is to restrict oneself to saying Amin immediately after al-Fatihah and not to append anything else, in obedience to the hadith. As for the report narrated by al-Bayhaqi from Wa’il b. Hujr—that he heard the Messenger of Allah, upon reciting ghayri’l-maghdubi ‘alayhim wa la’d-dallin (not of those who have incurred wrath, nor of those who are astray), say: ‘Lord, forgive me; amin’—its chain contains Abu Bakr al-Nahshali, who is weak. I note that the report appears in Sunan al-Bayhaqi (2/58) through the route of Ahmad b. Abd al-Jabbar al-Ataridi: he relates from his father, from Abu Bakr al-Nahshali, from Abu Ishaq, from Abu Abd Allah al-Yahsabi, from Wa’il with the same wording. Al-Tabarani also transmits it through this chain—as cited in al-Majma‘—and al-Haythami declares the hadith defective because of Ahmad b. Abd al-Jabbar, stating: “Al-Daraqutni considered him trustworthy and Abu Kurayb praised him, but several scholars judged him weak, and Ibn Adi said, ‘I have not found any reprehensible hadith of his.’” In al-Taqrib he is rated “weak.” Concerning Abu Bakr al-Nahshali, al-Taqrib says: “truthful, but accused of irjaʾ.” Hence, weakening the isnad because of al-Ataridi, as al-Haythami did, is preferable to weakening it on account of al-Nahshali. (1) The majority of scholars interpret the command as recommendatory; Ibn Hazm adopts this view in al-Muhalla (3/262). Al-Hafiz (2/210) adds: “Ibn Bazizah transmitted from some scholars that it is obligatory for the follower (maʾmum) in prayer, acting on the literal sense of the command.”