action; in that case it is considered marfūʿ by ruling, even though the deed outwardly belongs to the Companion himself. An example is ʿAlī’s (may Allah be pleased with him) eclipse prayer in which he performed three bowings in every cycle; this is treated as marfūʿ by ruling, because determining the number of bowings within a single cycle rests entirely on revelation, leaving no scope for individual reasoning. The same principle applies when a Companion speaks about a future occurrence or about matters of the unseen: such reports are judged to be marfūʿ, for issues of the unseen are not accessible to mere opinion.