Muaz used to pray the evening prayer with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, then return and lead his companions in prayer.Then he mentioned the story of Muaz, saying that the Prophet ﷺ said to a young man, "Nephew, what do you do when you pray?"The young man replied, "I recite the Opening of the Book, then I ask Allah for Paradise and seek refuge in Him from the Fire. I do not know your soft murmuring, nor that of Muaz."The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, "Muaz and I are concerned with the same two things," or something to that effect.
كان معاذ يصلي مع رسول الله ﷺ العشاء، ثم يرجع فيصلي بأصحابه ثم ذكر قصة معاذ، قال: قال النبي ﷺ للفتى: وكيف تصنع يا ابن أخي إذا صليت؟ قال: أقرأ بفاتحة الكتاب، وأسأل الله الجنة، وأعوذ به من النار، وإني لا أدري ما دندنتك ولا دندنة معاذ، فقال رسول الله ﷺ: إني ومعاذ حول هاتين أو نحو هذا.
Abu Dawud narrated it (793) from Yahya bin Habib, [who said] Khalid bin Harith narrated to us, [who said] Muhammad bin Ajlan narrated to us, from Ubaydullah bin Miqsam, from Jabir, and he mentioned something similar. From Abu Dawud, it was narrated by both Baghawi in Sharh al-Sunnah (601) and Bayhaqi (3/116-117).Ibn Khuzayma graded it sahih and narrated it in his Sahih (1634) from Yahya bin Habib Harithi with the same wording, at length. Imam Ahmad narrated it (14241) from Yahya (that is, Ibn Saeed) from Ibn Ajlan, in brief, without mentioning the point of evidence as Abu Dawud mentioned it.Its chain of transmission is hasan because of Muhammad bin Ajlan, for he is "truthful" as Hafiz said, even though the great scholars of hadith deemed him reliable, among them Ahmad, Ibn Main, Abu Zura, Abu Hatim, Nasai, Ajli, and others. Except that the hadiths of Abu Hurairah became mixed up for him, and he was also inconsistent in the hadith of Nafi, but here he is free from these defects.As for the origin of the story, it is established in Sahihayn, and it will come up in the collected chapters on leading prayer. Bayhaqi, may Allah have mercy on him, did not include this hadith of Jabir in the chapter "Restricting Oneself to the Fatihah of the Book," but rather included in it the hadith of Ibn Abbas, "The Messenger of Allah ﷺ prayed two units of prayer, reciting in them only the Fatihah of the Book."He recorded it in Sunan al-Kubra (2/61), and Ahmad (2550), and Abu Yaala (2561), and Ibn Khuzayma (513), all of them through the route of Hanzala Sadusi, from Ikrima, from Ibn Abbas, and he mentioned the hadith, except for Abu Yaala, who narrated it through the route of Hanzala from Shahr bin Hawshab, from Ibn Abbas, and he mentioned it.Its chain of transmission is daif, because Hanzala Sadusi, that is bin Abdullah, is daif. Ibn Turkmani said, "Bayhaqi said, in the chapter on a man embracing another man, he had become confused, Yahya Qattan abandoned him because of his confusion, and Ahmad weakened him and said, 'His hadith is objectionable, he narrates strange things,' and Ibn Main said, 'He is nothing, he changed in his later life.'" End of quote.The hadith of Jabir had more right to be included in this chapter than the hadith of Ibn Abbas.The hadith of Ubada bin Samit in Sahihayn and elsewhere, "There is no prayer for one who does not recite the Fatihah of the Book," gives the understanding that whoever recites the Fatihah of the Book, his prayer is valid. Relying on this implied contrary meaning is a matter of well-known disagreement among the scholars.