476 - Suwayd ibn Nasr informed us: ‘Abdullah ibn al-Mubarak informed us, on the authority of Abu ‘Awanah, on the authority of Mansur ibn Zadhan, on the authority of al-Walid Abu Bishr, on the authority of Abu al-Mutawakkil, on the authority of Abu Sa‘id al-Khudri, who said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) would stand for the Zuhr prayer and recite the equivalent of thirty verses in each rak‘ah, then stand for the ‘Asr prayer and recite in the first two rak‘ahs the equivalent of fifteen verses.

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Also recorded by Muslim (452): (156), Abu Dawud (804), and Ibn Hibban (1828) and (1858), via multiple chains, from Hushaym, with this chain of transmission.

It was also recorded by Ahmad (10986) from Hushaym, with this chain of transmission, except that he said: “on the authority of Abu al-Mutawakkil or on the authority of Abu al-Siddiq,” expressing doubt, and both are trustworthy. It will also come via the route of Abu al-Mutawakkil, from Abu Sa‘id, in the hadith after this one.

(1) In (R): al-ūlayayn (the first two).

(2) The hadith is authentic. Abu ‘Awanah is al-Waddah ibn ‘Abdullah al-Yashkuri, al-Walid Abu Bishr is Ibn Muslim al-‘Anbari, and Abu al-Mutawakkil is ‘Ali ibn Dawud al-Naji. It is in al-Sunan al-Kubra, no. 350.

‘Abdullah ibn al-Mubarak was alone among those who narrated from Abu ‘Awanah in saying in this chain: “on the authority of Abu al-Mutawakkil.” He was contradicted by Yunus ibn Muhammad al-Mu’addib, as in the Musnad of Ahmad (11802), Shayban ibn Farrukh, as in Sahih Muslim (452): (157), and Qutaybah ibn Sa‘id, as in Sahih Ibn Hibban (1825), for they narrated it from Abu ‘Awanah, from Mansur ibn Zadhan, from al-Walid Abu Bishr, from Abu al-Siddiq al-Naji, from Abu Sa‘id, with the same content.

Ibn Hajar said in al-Nukat al-Ziraf, in the margin of al-Tuhfah 3/431: “Perhaps he (meaning Abu ‘Awanah) narrated it to him (meaning Ibn al-Mubarak) from memory, and narrated it to those others from his book, and when he narrated from his book he was more precise than when he narrated from memory.” End of his words.

His statement: “He would stand for the Zuhr and recite the equivalent of thirty verses in each rak‘ah” is not to be taken at face value; rather, it is restricted to the first two rak‘ahs of it. In this narration of Ibn al-Mubarak there is abbreviation, whereas the wording of the other routes from Abu ‘Awanah mentioned above came in detail, mentioning thirty verses in each of the first two rak‘ahs of Zuhr, fifteen verses in each of the last two rak‘ahs of Zuhr and the first two of ‘Asr, and half of that amount in the last two of ‘Asr.