Azami 2786

Abu Dawud (1416) narrated it from Ibrahim bin Musa, who reported to us, from Isa, from Zakariya, from Abu Ishaq, from Asim, from Ali bin Abu Talib, and he related it. This chain is hasan, for Asim is Ibn Damra Saluli, about whom there has been disagreement. Ibn Hibban and Ibn Adi declared him daif, while Ibn Madini, Ibn Main, Ahmad, and others deemed him reliable. The conclusion regarding him is that his hadith is hasan.Tirmidhi (453), Nasai (1675), Ibn Majah (1169), and Ahmad (1262) all narrated it, all of them through Abu Bakr bin Ayyash, from Abu Ishaq, in the same manner, but they added at the beginning of the hadith the statement of Ali bin Abu Talib, "Witr is not obligatory like your prescribed prayers, but the Messenger of Allah ﷺ made it a sunnah," as found in Tirmidhi. And in the versions of Nasai and Ibn Majah it states, "The Messenger of Allah ﷺ performed witr," then he said, "O people of the Quran..." and so on through the rest of the hadith.Tirmidhi said, "A hasan hadith." Then Tirmidhi said, Sufyan Thawri and others narrated from Abu Ishaq, from Asim bin Damra, from Ali, who said, "Witr is not obligatory like the prescribed prayer, but it is a sunnah that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ established as sunnah." Muhammad bin Bashshar narrated this to us, Abdul-Rahman bin Mahdi narrated to us, from Sufyan, from Abu Ishaq, in the same manner, meaning as a stopped report (mawquf). He said, "This is more sahih than the hadith of Abu Bakr bin Ayyash, and Mansur bin Mutamir also narrated it from Abu Ishaq similarly to the narration of Abu Bakr bin Ayyash." End of quote.I say, it is as he said, for Sufyan Thawri's hearing from Abu Ishaq was from before Abu Ishaq's memory became confused, and Imam Ahmad (652, 761, 927) also narrated it through this route. Likewise Shuba narrated it from him, as reported by Imam Ahmad (842). And likewise Sharik narrated it from him, as reported by Imam Ahmad (1220). So all of these narrated from Abu Ishaq as a report stopped at Ali bin Abu Talib.Zakariya bin Abu Zaida and Abu Bakr bin Ayyash narrated it from Abu Ishaq as a raised report (marfu), and Mansur bin Mutamir followed them in this, as Tirmidhi stated. I say, likewise Jareer did so, and Ibn Nasr narrated it through their two routes in his "Juz Salat al-Witr" (1). Ibn Khuzayma (1067) and Hakim (1/300) graded it sahih, after both of them narrated it through the route of Abu Bakr bin Ayyash, in the same manner.I say, it is corroborated by the hadith of Mikhdaji mentioned earlier.