47 — We were told by Ibrahim ibn Musa: ‘Isa ibn Yunus informed us: Muhammad ibn Ishaq told us, from Muhammad ibn Ibrahim al-Taymi, from Abu Salama ibn ‘Abd al-Rahman, from Zayd ibn Khalid al-Juhani, who said: I heard the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, say: "Were it not that I would impose hardship on my community, I would have commanded them to use the toothstick (siwak) at every prayer."

Abu Salama said: I saw Zayd sitting in the mosque, with the toothstick in his ear in the position of the pen in the ear of a scribe, and whenever he stood up for prayer, he cleaned his teeth with it.

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It was also recorded by Muslim (252), al-Nasa’i in al-Kubra (3034), and Ibn Majah (690) via Sufyan ibn ‘Uyayna, and by al-Bukhari (887) and al-Nasa’i in al-Kubra (6) via Malik, both from Abu al-Zinad, with this chain. Malik’s version is abridged to mention only the toothstick, as is Muslim’s version, while Ibn Majah’s version is abridged to mention only the night prayer.

It was also recorded in abridged form mentioning the toothstick by al-Bukhari (7240) via Ja‘far ibn Rabi‘a, from al-A‘raj, with it.

Ibn Majah recorded it (287) in abridged form mentioning the toothstick, and (691) in abridged form mentioning the night prayer, via Sa‘id al-Maqburi, from Abu Hurayra.

It is also in Musnad Ahmad (7339) and Sahih Ibn Hibban (1068).

See also what follows.

Imam al-Shafi‘i said: In this there is evidence that the toothstick is not obligatory, for had it been obligatory, he would have commanded them to do it whether it caused hardship or not. The majority of scholars have adopted the view that it is not obligatory.

(1) A sound hadith. Muhammad ibn Ishaq — although he was a mudallis and narrated it with ‘an‘ana — has been corroborated. There is disagreement concerning it regarding Abu Salama.
It was recorded by al-Tirmidhi (23) and al-Nasa’i in al-Kubra (3029) via Muhammad ibn Ishaq, with this chain.