—the stump of a date-palm, and his foot was injured. We went to visit him and found him in an upper room belonging to ʿĀʾishah, glorifying Allah while seated.
He said, “We formed rows behind him, but he said nothing to us. We visited him again, and he performed the obligatory prayer sitting; we stood behind him, but he motioned for us to sit, so we sat down.
When he finished the prayer he said, ‘If the imam prays sitting, then pray sitting; and if the imam prays standing, then pray standing. Do not imitate the Persians with their nobles.’
I believe that in a wording other than Abū Dāwūd’s there is also: ‘Do not venerate me as the non-Arabs venerate one another.’
This ḥadith shows that he ordered them to abandon standing—although standing is obligatory in prayer—because the congregation’s standing while the imam remains seated resembles what the Persians and Romans do for their dignitaries: they stand while those dignitaries remain seated.
It is clear that the follower intends to stand for Allah, not for the imam; yet this
(1) That is, the base of a date-palm. See al-Qamus al-Muhit, section jim, chapter mim, 4/88.
(2) The printed edition reads fa-infakkat (“came loose”); the same wording appears in Sunan Abi Dawud.
(3) mashraba: an upper room. See Lisan al-Arab 1/491, root sh-r-b.
(4) In manuscript D the phrase qala (“he said”) is missing.
(5) In manuscript B the word al-imam (“the imam”) is missing.
(6) Sunan Abi Dawud, Book of Prayer, chapter “The imam prays sitting,” hadith no. 602 (1/403-404); I referred to its parallel in Ibn Majah above. All its transmitters are those of the authentic collections.
(7) Abi Dawud also records a similar report: “From Abu Umamah: The Messenger of Allah came out leaning on a staff; we stood for him and he said, ‘Do not stand as the non-Persians and Romans do, exalting one another.’” Sunan Abi Dawud, Book of Manners, chapter “A man’s standing for another,” hadith no. 5230 (5/398); likewise in Musnad Ahmad 5/253-256. The sense of this report is sound and well established, as confirmed by the previous hadith in Muslim and others.
(8) The printed edition reads yaqwa (“becomes strong”).
(9) In manuscript C the divine name Allah is omitted.
(10) Manuscript A reads: “that he stand devoutly for Allah …,” and so on.