expert in ḥadith and the evaluation of transmitters; he produced numerous compilations and source-critical extractions. He was scrupulous, God-fearing, ascetic, devoted to worship, exceedingly careful to consume only what is lawful, and he strove in the path of Allah. By my life, my eyes have never seen his equal in integrity, chastity, and the excellence of his method in seeking knowledge.

He then said: “Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wāḥid narrated to me; Abū Jaʿfar al-Ṣaydilānī narrated to us; Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥaddād—in person—narrated to us; Abū Nuʿaym the ḥāfiẓ informed us; Ibn Khallād narrated to us; al-Ḥārith ibn Muḥammad narrated to us; Yazīd ibn Hārūn narrated to us; Ḥumayd al-Ṭawīl narrated to us, from Anas:

Allah’s Messenger ﷺ fell from his horse and his side—or his thigh—was scraped. He vowed to keep away from his wives for a month and stayed in an upper room whose steps were made of palm-trunk logs. His Companions came to visit him, and he led them in prayer sitting while they prayed standing. When he finished he said:

‘The imām has only been appointed so that he may be followed: when he pronounces the takbīr, you pronounce the takbīr; when he bows, bow; when he prostrates, prostrate; and if he prays standing, then pray standing, but if he prays sitting, then pray sitting.’

He came down on the twenty-ninth.

They said, ‘Messenger of Allah, you had vowed for a whole month.’

He replied, ‘The month is twenty-nine.’ (1)

Judge Taqī al-Dīn Sulaymān ibn Ḥamzah related this to me, saying: ‘Our shaykh, the ḥāfiẓ Ḍiyāʾ al-Dīn Muḥammad, related it to us,’ and he mentioned it.