al-Umm (1/101), as well as in the collections of al-Nasaʾi, al-Tirmidhi, al-Daraqutni, and al-Bayhaqi; it is also one of Ahmad’s versions. The last wording, by contrast, is that reported by al-Nasaʾi and Ibn Majah. Both of their isnads are sound, identical to Muslim’s. Al-Tirmidhi and al-Daraqutni declared the hadith authentic. (1) Al-Nawawi remarks in Sharh Muslim: “Its full wording is: ‘and the blessings, and the prayers, and the good things,’ as in the hadith of Ibn Masud and others; the conjunction waw has simply been omitted for brevity, a recognised usage in Arabic. The meaning is that greetings of honour and everything that follows belong solely to Allah and are not, in their essence, suited to anyone else.” (2) He also states in al-Majmuʿ, after citing the two versions (3/460): “Our scholars agree that all of these formulations are permissible, yet the one beginning with the definite article (al-) is superior: it occurs more frequently in the hadiths and in al-Shafiʿi’s wording, its additional phrase makes it safer, and it corresponds to the salutation used when concluding the prayer.”