Muwatta 252

The first hadith in the chapter on completing prayer when the worshipper doubts what he prayed. Yahya transmits from Malik from Zayd ibn Aslam from Ata ibn Yasar as a mursal: the Prophet ﷺ ordered whoever doubted his prayer, and did not know whether he had prayed three or four rak'as, to pray one more rak'a, make two prostrations while seated before the salam. If that rak'a was the fifth, the two prostrations make it even, and if it was the fourth, the two prostrations are a humiliation of Satan. The editor notes Ibn Abd al-Barr's view that all Muwatta transmitters gave it as a mursal, and that only al-Walid ibn Muslim connected it from Malik. Trustworthy transmitters connected it through Zayd ibn Aslam from Ata from Abu Sa'id al-Khudri, including al-Majshun, Ibn Ajlan and Sulayman ibn Bilal, so the hadith is connected and sound, and the shortfall of those who abbreviated it does not harm it (al-Tamhid). Ahmad said Malik shortened it while many connected it, and al-Daraqutni preferred the raised version; the editor cites Abu Sa'id's raised hadith in Muslim, Abu Dawud, Ibn Majah, al-Nasa'i, Ibn Khuzayma and Ibn Hibban. ^{1 2}

Belongs to the Muwatta, Book of Prayer. Source: the Muwatta. Mentions Muhammad, Zayd ibn Aslam, Ata ibn Yasar, Abu Sa'id al-Khudri, Ahmad ibn Hanbal, whom Ibn al-Nadim names Abu Abd Allah Ahmad ibn Hanbal and credits with a book of Ilal 3 and al-Daraqutni. Built on in the chapters on prayer.