Sunan Abi Dawud 946
سنن أبي داود#946Sahihحَدَّثَنَا مُسْلِمُ بْنُ إِبْرَاهِيمَ، حَدَّثَنَا هِشَامٌ، عَنْ يَحْيَى، عَنْ أَبِي سَلَمَةَ، عَنْ مُعَيْقِيبٍ، أَنَّ النَّبِيَّ صلى الله عليه وسلم قَالَ " لاَ تَمْسَحْ وَأَنْتَ تُصَلِّي فَإِنْ كُنْتَ لاَ بُدَّ فَاعِلاً فَوَاحِدَةً تَسْوِيَةَ الْحَصَى " .
Mu’aiqib reported the Prophet (ﷺ) as saying ; Do not remove pebbles while you are praying; if you do it out of sheer necessity, do it only once to smooth the pebbles
Scholarly Authentication
The label above is the grade most of these scholars gave — one dissenting opinion no longer speaks for all of them. If any scholar calls a narration fabricated, that verdict is shown instead, whatever the others say. Each scholar's own wording:
Al-AlbaniSahih
Muhammad Muhyi Al-Din Abdul HamidSahih
Shuaib Al ArnautSahih
Zubair Ali ZaiSahih Bukhari (1207) Sahih Muslim (546)
In-book reference: 2:557