—as previously noted. Allah knows best. (1) This comes from a report of Anas ibn Malik (may Allah be pleased with him): “One night the Messenger of Allah ﷺ felt something. When morning came they said, ‘Messenger of Allah, the traces of pain are plainly visible on you.’ He replied, ‘What you see is only, by Allah’s grace, because I recited al-sabʿ al-tawal (the Seven Long Surahs).’ ” Al-Hakim records it (al-Mustadrak, 1 : 308) through Muammal ibn Ismail → Sulayman ibn al-Mughira → Thabit → Anas, and says, “Authentic according to the criteria of Muslim,” a judgment endorsed by al-Dhahabi. This, however, is incorrect, for Muammal is not among Muslim’s narrators; he is reliable but prone to poor memory. Al-Haythami cites it in Majmaʿ al-zawaʾid with the wording, “I recited last night…,” the rest being identical, and comments, “Abu Yaʿla transmitted it, and its narrators are trustworthy.” I maintain that the incident most likely occurred during the night prayer, though it is possible that it happened outside the prayer. The first view is reinforced by what Ahmad (5 : 388, 396–397) relates via Hammad → ʿAbd al-Malik ibn ʿUmayr → a cousin of Hudhayfa → Hudhayfa, who said: … (1) In another wording the term appears as al-tuwal. Ibn al-Athir explains: “With a damma: the plural of al-tuwla, like kubra/kibar. The Seven Long Surahs are al-Baqara, Al ʿImran, al-Nisaʾ, al-Maʾida, al-Anʿam, al-Aʿraf, and al-Tawba.” (*) The hadith appears in Abu Yaʿla (no. 3431) with Muammal’s chain; on that basis Shaykh al-Albani declared it weak in Silsilat al-ahadith al-daʿifa, no. 3995, saying: “Whoever owns a copy of Sifat al-salah that contains this narration should strike it out—may Allah reward him.”