I add: in my judgment this is not a weakening defect. There is nothing to stop Shuʿba from having related, with this same chain, two separate reports—one passed on by Yahya and the other by Shababa, who is himself a trustworthy memoriser, as al-Taqrib states. His being the sole transmitter, therefore, is harmless, all the more so since the hadith also comes by another route from Qatadah. Al-Tahawi (1/171) records it through al-Himmani, who said: Abbad ibn al-ʿAwwam told us, from al-Hajjaj, from Qatadah, with the same wording. Al-Hajjaj is reliable, though he practises tadlis. The same route is found in al-Tabarani’s al-Kabir, as cited in Majmaʿ (2/243). Other Companions also have reports on this subject. Their narrations were collected by al-Haythami (2/243–244) and later by al-Shawkani (3/29–30); the isnads are not free of criticism, yet what we have quoted suffices. There is likewise a sound isnad from ʿAʾisha, which will be cited shortly. Imam Ahmad preferred reciting these three surahs in the witr prayer, as Abu Dawud transmits from him in al-Masaʾil; al-Tirmidhi (2/326) attributes the same practice to most of the scholars among the Companions and those after them. Some of them further recommended adding the two surahs of refuge after Qul huwa Allahu ahad on the basis of ʿAʾisha’s hadith, namely the report that: (1) was recorded by Abu Dawud (1/225), al-Tirmidhi (2/326), Ibn Majah (1/357), al-Hakim (2/520–521) and Ahmad (6/227) through Muhammad ibn Salama al-Harrani, from — . The Shaykh (may Allah have mercy on him) also attributed it in al-Sifah, in the printed edition of the hadith collection of Abu al-ʿAbbas al-Asam (vol. 2, no. 117).