Al-Walīd ibn al-ʿAyzār said: I heard Abū ʿAmr al-Shaybānī say:

The owner of this house—and he pointed to the house of ʿAbd Allāh—narrated to us, saying: I asked the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him: "Which deed is most beloved to Allah the Exalted?" He said: "Prayer at its appointed time, kindness to parents, and jihad in the cause of Allah, Mighty and Majestic."(1)

611 — ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān informed us, saying: Sufyān narrated to us, saying: --------------------------------------------
(1) Its chain of transmission is sound. Yaḥyā: he is Ibn Saʿīd al-Qaṭṭān, and Abū ʿAmr al-Shaybānī: he is Saʿd ibn Iyās, and ʿAbd Allāh (the Companion of the hadith): he is Ibn Masʿūd, may Allah be pleased with him. It is in *al-Sunan al-Kubrā* under number (1593).

It was also recorded by Aḥmad (3890) and (4186), al-Bukhārī (527) and (5970) and (7534), Muslim (85): (139), and Ibn Ḥibbān (1477) via multiple chains from Shuʿbah, with this chain of transmission. In some of them it appears: "He narrated these three to me, and had I asked him for more, he would have added more."

It was also recorded by Aḥmad (4313), al-Bukhārī (2782) and (7534), Muslim (85): (137) and (138), al-Tirmidhī (173) and (1898), and Ibn Ḥibbān (1478) via multiple chains from al-Walīd ibn al-ʿAyzār, with it, with similar wordings, some of them abridged.

It was also recorded by Ibn Ḥibbān (1475) and (1479) via the route of ʿUthmān ibn ʿUmar, from Mālik ibn Mighwal, from al-Walīd ibn al-ʿAyzār, with it, and in it: "Which deed is best?" He said: "Prayer at the beginning of its time." Ibn Ḥibbān said: ʿUthmān ibn ʿUmar was unique in narrating it. End quote. Al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar mentioned in *al-Fatḥ* 2/10 that ʿAlī ibn Ḥafṣ narrated it from Shuʿbah likewise, and he quoted al-Nawawī's weakening of it, saying: It is as though the one who narrated it thus assumed that the meaning is the same, and he may have derived it from the word "ʿalā" (at/upon), because it implies being upon the entirety of the time, so its beginning is thereby specified.

It was also recorded by Muslim (85): (140) and Ibn Ḥibbān (1474) via the route of al-Ḥasan ibn ʿUbayd Allāh, from Abū ʿAmr al-Shaybānī, with it, abridged.

It was also recorded by Aḥmad (3973) and (3998) and (4243) and (4285), and Ibn Ḥibbān (1476) via the two routes of Abū al-Aḥwaṣ ʿAwf ibn Mālik ibn Naḍlah and Abū ʿUbaydah ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd, with it.

It will follow afterward via the route of Abū Muʿāwiyah al-Nakhaʿī ʿAmr ibn ʿAbd Allāh, from Abū ʿAmr al-Shaybānī, with it.