I said: This is a sound chain of transmission; all its narrators are reliable. Ibn ʿAyāsh was only criticized for his narrations from non-Shāmīs, but regarding his narrations from them, his ḥadīth is sound, as stated by al-Bukhārī and others, and this is one of them, for Ṣafwān is among their trustworthy narrators. In this narration, there is a valuable addition, which is "He gives life and causes death," as it is rarely confirmed in another ḥadīth. It has been narrated from Abū Dharr and ʿUmārah ibn Shabīb, and al-Tirmidhī graded them as good, but their chains are weak, as I have clarified in "al-Taʿlīq al-Raghīb ʿalá al-Targhīb wa-al-Tarhīb." In the ḥadīth of the first of them: "Whoever says after the dawn prayer while still sitting with his legs folded before speaking: 'There is no deity but Allāh...' " This condition: "while still sitting..." is not authentic in the ḥadīth because it is uniquely reported by Shahr ibn Ḥawshab, and he has shown much inconsistency in the chain and the text of the ḥadīth, as I have explained in the aforementioned source.

- "Be steadfast and moderate, act and choose, and know that the best of your deeds is prayer, and no one maintains ablution except a believer." It was narrated by Imām Aḥmad (5/282): "al-Walīd ibn Muslim narrated to us, Ibn Thawbān narrated to us, Ḥassān ibn ʿAṭiyyah told me that Abū Kabshah al-Salūlī narrated to him that he heard Thawbān say: The Messenger of Allāh (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) said. It was also narrated by al-Dārimī (1/168), Ibn Ḥibbān (164), and al-Ṭabarānī in "al-Muʿjam al-Kabīr" (1/72/2) from al-Walīd with it. I said: This is a good chain of transmission; all its narrators are reliable, the men of al-Bukhārī except for Ibn Thawbān