he said: “Urwa b. al-Zubayr related to me that Marwan told him: Zayd b. Thabit said to me, ‘Why do you recite in Maghrib from the short mufassal surahs? The Messenger of Allah used to recite in the Maghrib prayer tulā al-tulayayn (the longer of the two long ones).’ I asked Urwa, ‘What is tulā al-tulayayn?’ He replied: ‘Surat al-Araf.’” This is Ahmad’s wording. Abu Dawud adds: “I myself asked Ibn Abi Mulayka, and he answered spontaneously: ‘(Surat) al-Maida and (Surat) al-Araf.’” Ibn Khuzayma and al-Bayhaqi record the same report, but with “al-Anam” in place of “al-Maida.” Al-Jawzaki also transmits it through Abu Dawud’s chain, as Ibn Hajar notes; after citing supporting variants he concludes: “There is unanimous agreement that the ‘longer one’ is al-Araf, while three opinions exist concerning the other; the preserved view is that it is al-Anam.” Hisham b. Urwa corroborated it from his father: Ahmad (5/187) reports—with a sound chain—through Sulayman b. Dawud, Abd al-Rahman b. Abi al-Zinad, Hisham b. Urwa, from his father, from Marwan b. al-Hakam, who said: “Zayd b. Thabit said to me, ‘Did I not see you tonight shorten the recitation in the two rak‘as of Maghrib? By Him in whose hand is my soul, the Messenger of Allah used to recite in them tulā al-tulayayn.’” Urwa’s own narration from Zayd is reported by al-Nasa’i and al-Tahawi (1/124) through Abu al-Aswad: he heard Urwa b. al-Zubayr say that Zayd b. Thabit told Marwan b. al-Hakam, “O Abu Abd al-Malik, what makes you recite in the Maghrib prayer with Qul huwa Allahu ahad (Surat al-Ikhlas)?”