Majma al-Zawaid — Hadith 6835

Abu Salamah bin Abd al-Rahman narrates: I went to Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Amr (may Allah be pleased with him), and he asked me (about myself), thinking that I was the son of Umm Kulthum bint Uqbah. I said: "I am (the son of) al-Kalbiyyah." Sayyiduna Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him) said: Once the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) came to me in my house and said: "I have been told that you recite the whole Qur'an every day and night? Recite the whole Qur'an once a month." Sayyiduna Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him) says: I said: "I am able to do more than that." The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Then complete it in half a month." I said: "I am able to do more than that." The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Then complete it in a week, and no more than that. And I have been told that you fast every day." I said: "Yes! I do fast." The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Fast three days every month." I said: "I am able to do more than that." The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Fast two days every week." I said: "I am able to do more than that." The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Then fast in the manner of Sayyiduna Dawud (peace be upon him): fast one day and leave one day, for in the sight of Allah Almighty this is the most balanced way of fasting. And Sayyiduna Dawud (peace be upon him), when he made a promise, did not break it, and when he faced the enemy, he did not retreat." (Allamah al-Haythami says:) I say:
This report is mentioned in the "Sahih", except that it does not contain these words: "When he made a promise, he did not break it."
Ahmad recorded it; its chain contains a narrator, Muhammad bin Ishaq, who is thiqah (trustworthy) but a mudallis, and the remaining narrators of this report are the narrators of the Sahih.