He writes under point 4—in the commentary, clarifying the Prophet’s words, “May Allah increase your eagerness, but do not repeat”: “It has been said: do not repeat by delaying your arrival at the prayer; it has been said: do not repeat by joining the row while you are already bowing; and it has been said: do not repeat by hurrying to the prayer.”

I respond: The view closest to the truth is the last one, because the Prophet ﷺ said, “When you come to the prayer, proceed with tranquility and do not come running. Whatever you catch, pray; whatever you miss, complete.” Agreed upon.

As for the preceding view, no authentic evidence supports it; in fact, it contradicts the report of ʿAṭāʾ ibn Abī Yasār, who heard ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Zubayr declare from the pulpit: “When one of you enters the mosque and the people are bowing, let him bow on entering, then edge forward while still bowing until he reaches the row, for that is the sunnah.” ʿAṭāʾ added, “I have seen him do this himself.”

Ibn Khuzaymah recorded it (1571), as did al-Ṭabarānī and al-Ḥākim, who ruled it authentic, with al-Dhahabī concurring. The report is as they judged, as I demonstrated in al-Ṣaḥīḥah 229. The early generations acted upon it—Abū Bakr, Zayd ibn Thābit, and Ibn Masʿūd—and I have cited their narrations there.

The report that conflicts with it is weak and bears a subtle defect that I clarified in al-Ḍaʿīfah 977. For this reason Imām Aḥmad did not rely on it; rather, he adopted the hadith of Ibn al-Zubayr, as will soon be shown.

His statement under point 4: “Ibn al-Humām said: Our jurists construed the hadith of Wābiṣah as meritorious and the hadith of ʿAlī ibn Shaybān as indicating lack of completeness, so that both would accord with the hadith of Abū Bakrah, whose outward sense is that repeating the prayer is not obligatory since he was not commanded to repeat.”

I say: There is no contradiction between those two hadiths on the one hand and the hadith of Abū Bakrah on the other.