831 — Aḥmad ibn Ṣāliḥ narrated to us, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Wahb narrated to us, ʿAmr and Ibn Lahīʿah informed me, from Bakr ibn Sawādah, from Wafāʾ ibn Shurayḥ al-Ṣadafī, from Sahl ibn Saʿd al-Sāʿidī, who said: The Messenger of Allāh ﷺ came out to us one day while we were reciting, and he said: "Praise be to Allāh. The Book of Allāh is one, and among you are the red, among you are the white, and among you are the black. Recite it before there come people who will straighten it (1) — the one who recites it most quickly will be like the one who shoots an arrow, and the one who recites it slowly will be like the one who shoots a heavy arrow."

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It was also recorded by Aḥmad (15273), al-Bayhaqī in *Shuʿab al-Īmān* (2399), and al-Baghawī in *Sharḥ al-Sunnah* (609) via multiple chains from Khālid al-Ṭaḥḥān, with this chain of transmission.

It was also recorded by Aḥmad (14855), Abū Yaʿlā (2197), and al-Bayhaqī (2400) and (2401) via the route of Usāmah ibn Zayd al-Laythī, from Muḥammad ibn al-Munkadir, with it.

Usāmah ibn Zayd and Ḥumayd al-Aʿraj were contradicted by the two Sufyāns, who narrated it from Muḥammad ibn al-Munkadir from the Prophet ﷺ as a *mursal* report. It was recorded from Sufyān al-Thawrī by Ibn Abī Shaybah 10/480 and al-Bayhaqī in *al-Shuʿab* (2398), and from Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah by ʿAbd al-Razzāq (6034).

On this topic there are also reports from Anas ibn Mālik, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Shibl, and ʿImrān ibn Ḥuṣayn, and their ḥadīths are in *al-Musnad* (12483), (15529), and (19917), and from Sahl ibn Saʿd, which is the following ḥadīth of the author.

He said in *ʿAwn al-Maʿbūd*: His saying "so each is good" means: each one of your recitations is good and hoped for reward, if you prefer the hereafter over the present world, and there is no blame upon you if you do not straighten your tongues with the straightening of the arrow — that is, the arrow before it is fletched.

"And there will come people who straighten it" means: they will refine its words and phrases and go to great lengths in observing its points of articulation and attributes.

"Just as the arrow is straightened" means: they will exert the utmost effort in the performance of recitation, for the sake of ostentation, reputation, boasting, and fame.

"They hasten it" means: they seek its reward in this world, "and do not defer it," meaning they do not seek the reward in the hereafter. Rather, they prefer the immediate over the deferred, and they consume [the religion] rather than relying [on Allāh].

(1) In one copy, in the margin of (D): "will correct it."