“Sound according to al-Bukhari’s criteria,” and al-Dhahabi concurred. This assessment is correct, yet al-Daraqutni, al-Bayhaqi and al-Tirmidhi criticised the report, judging it mursal (the Companion is omitted). Sufyan al-Thawri likewise transmitted it, saying: “Asim al-Ahwal informed me from Ikrimah,” in mursal form. However, other routes from Ikrimah are fully connected and thus strengthen one another. Al-Tabarani records it in al-Kabir (3/140/1): “Al-Hasan ibn Ali al-Maʿmari related to us; Ibn ʿUthman ibn Kathir ibn Dinar al-Himsi—whom I think to be Yahya—related to us; Muhammad ibn Himyar related to us from al-Dahhak ibn Hamrah, from Mansur, from Asim al-Bajali, from Ikrimah, from Ibn ʿAbbas, in marfuʿ form, with the wording: ‘Whoever does not press his nose together with his forehead onto the ground when he prostrates, his prayer is invalid.’” This chain is fair (hasan) and suitable for corroboration. All its transmitters are truthful (saduq) except al-Dahhak ibn Hamrah, about whom there is disagreement: some declared him weak, others reliable. Ibn Hajar, in Taqrib al-Tahdhib, says: “weak.” Al-Haythami remarks in Majmaʿ al-zawaʾid (2/126) after quoting the tradition: “Al-Tabarani narrated it in al-Kabir and al-Awsat; its narrators are reliable, though some are disputed because of a Shiʿi tendency.” Harb ibn Maymun also transmitted it from Khalid, from Ikrimah, from Ibn ʿAbbas, from the Prophet: “Press your nose down so that it prostrates with you,” as cited by al-Bayhaqi. I say: This chain is sound, provided the transmitters below Harb ibn Maymun are reliable. (*) The Shaykh—may Allah have mercy on him—later found the complete chain in Abu Nuʿaym’s Akhbar Asbahan (1/192–193), cited it accordingly in al-Sifah (printed edition), and included it in al-Sahihah, as will be mentioned later.