—I therefore asked Ibn Abi Mulaykah, “Abu Muhammad, what if a man does not have a pleasant voice?” He answered, “Let him improve it as much as he can.” The chain is hasan. Al-Hafiz (Fath, 9/60) even ruled it sahih, but this is open to question: in al-Taqrib he himself describes ‘Abd al-Jabbar ibn al-Ward as “trustworthy yet prone to error,” so at best the report is hasan, not sahih. Another route runs through ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn al-Thaib, who said: “Saʿd ibn Abi Waqqas came to us once he had lost his sight. I greeted him and he asked, ‘Who are you?’ When I told him, he replied, ‘Welcome, nephew! I have heard that you recite the Quran with a beautiful voice. I heard the Messenger of Allah say: This Quran was sent down in solemnity; when you recite it, weep, and if you cannot, then force yourselves to weep and chant it (taghannaw); whoever does not chant it is not one of us.’ ” Ibn Majah (1/402) recorded it via Abu Rafiʿ from Ibn Abi Mulaykah. Abu Rafiʿ—Ismaʿil ibn Rafiʿ—is weak and rejected, as stated in al-Zawa’id, and al-Taqrib calls him “weak of memory.” Al-Mundhiri (Targhib, 2/215) likewise notes the weakness of the hadith. Hence al-Hafiz al-‘Iraqi’s verdict, “its chain is good” (1/249), is unwarranted. As for ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn al-Thaib, I have not been able to trace him and suspect a mistake in his father’s name.