She reported God’s messenger as saying, “The prayer before which the tooth-stick is used is seventy times more excellent than that before which it is not used.”
‘A'isha said that God’s messenger was using the tooth-stick when two men, one older than the other, were with him. A revelation came to him about the excellence of the tooth-stick in which he was told to show proper respect, and give it to the older of the two.
Narrated Abu Salama reported Zaid b. Khalid al-Juhani as saying:
I heard God's messenger say, “Were it not that I would distress my people, I would order them to use the tooth-stick before every prayer, and I would postpone the evening prayer till a third of the night had passed.”
He said that Zaid b. Khalid used to attend the prayers in the mosque with his tooth-stick on his ear where a clerk carries a pen, and did not get up to pray without using it, after which he put it back in its place.
Tirmidhi transmitted it, and also Abu Dawud, but he did not mention, “I would postpone the evening prayer till a third of the night had passed.” Tirmidhi said that this is a hasan sahih tradition.
