Is there a basis for the prayer of tasbih?

The student : Professor, regarding the prayer of tasbih, is it true that the hadith reported about this prayer is weak?

The Shaykh : The prayer of tasbih is actually a matter on which the scholars of hadith have differed greatly. Some have said it is a fabricated hadith, some have said it is weak, some have said it is good, and some have said it is authentic. I do not wish to lengthen this; what is the difference between good and authentic? And being good or authentic, it is divided into good in itself and good due to other evidence, and authentic is divided into authentic in itself and authentic due to other evidence. But the important point is that I say that whoever said it is a fabricated hadith has exaggerated and strayed far from the truth. And whoever said it is weak is close to the first group. The truth is that the hadith revolves between the statement of those who said it is good and the statement of those who said it is authentic. This is the stronger position in our view, and the authenticity came from two paths or from two aspects. The first aspect is that the hadith of the prayer of tasbih came from multiple paths in the Sunan of Abu Dawud and other books of the Sunnah, in which the scholars of knowledge say that the hadith strengthens one another and supports one another. This is because there is no one in them who is a liar or accused of lying, but rather some of them have been spoken of regarding their memorization. So the poor memorization is secured against error by the coming of a corroborating narration. How much more so when corroborating narrations have come for the hadith of the prayer of tasbih? This is the first aspect. The other aspect is that some of the great imams of the Salaf acted upon this hadith. Among those who narrated this hadith is 'Abdullah ibn al-Mubarak, who is a shaykh of the shaykhs of the Imam of the Sunnah, Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal. If this hadith were not authentic in the view of this Imam, he would not have acted upon it. So the truth of what the scholars said about this hadith is that it is an authentic hadith, and it is obligatory for the Muslim to act upon it, even if only once in his life. That is by praying four rak'ahs, with seventy-five tasbih in each rak'ah: fifteen in the standing, and ten in each of the remaining pillars, making a total of three hundred tasbih. For it will be an expiation for him, as came in the hadith mentioned earlier. Others, please proceed.