is merely a special usage peculiar to al-Nawawī, one that al-ʿAsqalānī and others criticized because it might lead the uninformed to imagine that al-Shāfiʿī possessed yet another chain from Thalabah. In fact, all he has is the single chain that passes through Ibn Shihāb.

Nevertheless, I have located a strong corroborating report. Ibn Abī Shaybah records it in al-Muṣannaf 2/124, through Yazīd ibn ʿAbd Allāh, from Thalabah ibn Abī Mālik al-Quraẓī, who said:

“I lived in the time of ʿUmar and ʿUthmān. When the imam came out for the Friday prayer we would cease praying; when he began to speak we would cease talking.”

The chain is authentic, and this Yazīd is Ibn al-Hād al-Laythī of Madinah.

Benefit: This athar shows that answering the muʾadhdhin is not obligatory, for practice during ʿUmar’s reign allowed conversation while the adhān was being called, and ʿUmar raised no objection. I am often asked for evidence that the command to respond to the muʾadhdhin is non-obligatory; I cite this report as my proof. Allah knows best.

He then writes, under the heading “Catching one rakʿah of Friday prayer or less”: “Ibn Masʿūd said, ‘Whoever catches one rakʿah of Friday prayer should add another, and whoever misses both rakʿahs should pray four.’ Al-Ṭabarānī narrated it with a fair chain.”

I say: He quoted this from Majmaʿ al-Haythamī 2/192, yet it really deserves to be graded sound, for al-Ṭabarānī related it in al-Kabīr through several routes from Abū Isḥāq, from Abū al-Aḥwaṣ, from Ibn Masʿūd (9/358–359/9545–9549). Others have transmitted it as well; see Irwāʾ al-Ghalīl no. 621 and al-Ajwibah al-Nāfiʿah.

As for the athar of Ibn ʿUmar that al-Bayhaqī cites immediately after this, it too is strong, as I have shown in that place.