‘THE VIRTUE OF TWO RAK`AHS OF OPTIONAL PRAYER…’:
From ‘Silsilatul-Ahaadeethis-Saheehah’(no.1388) of Shaikh Muhammad Naasiruddeen al-Albaanee -rahimahullaah:
“Ibn Saa`id reported in his additions to ‘az-Zuhd’ [of Ibn al-Mubaarak] (159/1), from ‘al-Kawaakib, 575, no.31: Indian edn.):
‘Muhammad ibn Yazeed, Aboo Hishaam ar-Rifaa`ee, narrated to us: Hafs ibn Ghiyaath narrated to us: from Aboo Maalik, and he is Sa`d ibn Taariq al-Ashja`ee: from Aboo Haazim: from Aboo Hurairah who said:
“Allaah’s Messenger (صَلَّى اللّٰهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّم) passed by a grave in which a person had been newly buried, and he said:
<< Two light rak`ahs, which you would regard as being something slight, and which you pray as something extra; if he- and he pointed to his grave- were able to add them to his deeds it would be more beloved to him than (having) everything in your world. >>’
Shaikh al-Albaanee said:
“Ibn Saa`id said: ‘It is a hadeeth with a singular chain which is hasan.’ I say: Its narrators are reliable, all of them are narrators of Muslim, except that this narrator ar-Rifaa`ee has been spoken against by some of them. al-Haafiz said: ‘He is not strong…al-Bukhaaree said: I saw them being united upon his being weak.’
I say: However he is not alone in reporting it, since Aboo Nu`aym reported it in ‘Akhbaar Asbahaan’ (2/225), and likewise at-Tabaraanee in ‘al-Awsat’ (no.907), through two other chains of narration from Hafs ibn Ghiyaath that he narrated it to us.
I say: And this is a chain of narration saheeh to the standard of Muslim, so the hadeeth is Saheeh through this chain, and all praise is for Allaah. And al-Mundhiree said in ‘at-Targheeb’ (1/146): ‘at-Tabaraanee reported it with a hasan chain’, and al-Haythamee said: ‘Its narrators are reliable’.
[Translated by Aboo Talhah Daawood ibn Ronald Burbank]
Posted from: https://alitisaambissunnah.wordpress.com/2011/08/19/the-virtue-of-optional-prayer/
Related Link: Nawafil (Optional) Prayers
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