—is mentioned in it is preceded by an explicit command – expressed after his words, “Go back and pray, for you have not prayed” – and the entire report is cast as a thorough lesson on what the prayer requires.

As for using the ḥadith to argue that anything omitted from it is not obligatory, the reason is that the Prophet ﷺ was teaching someone ignorant of the prayer’s indispensable elements. Had he left out something that is in fact obligatory, he would have delayed clarification beyond the moment of need, and that is unanimously impermissible.

4 – The proper method for deriving from this ḥadith what is and is not compulsory—whether of the prayer’s utterances or its motions—is to enumerate all the authentic wordings of the report. In every instance where jurists have differed over an act’s obligatoriness and the act is mentioned in this ḥadith, we adhere to its being obligatory unless stronger contrary evidence appears.

Conversely, in every instance where jurists have differed over an act’s obligatoriness and the act is not mentioned in this pedagogical ḥadith, even if another text contains an imperative for it, there remains the possibility that this ḥadith serves as an indicator that the command is only recommending the act. It may also be that the command should retain its apparent obligatoriness; deciding between the two requires an external corroborator.

5 – The ḥadith establishes the obligatoriness of the deeds it names; they are never waived through forgetfulness or ignorance. They are:

(a) The opening takbīr (takbīrat al-iḥrām), which is a pillar of the prayer in the first rakʿah alone.

Al-Ghazālī said: “The takbīr signifies exalting the Exalted Creator, declaring that He is greater and more magnificent than everything else. It implicitly purifies Him of every imperfection or deficiency. The wisdom behind beginning the prayer with it is to recall the majesty of the One before whom one stands and that He is greater than anything that may cross one’s mind, so that the worshipper attains humility and a sense of shame should his thoughts occupy themselves with anything else. For this reason the scholars are unanimous that a servant receives from his prayer only what he consciously attends to.”

(b) The recitation of al-Fātiḥah in every rakʿah; then bowing, rising from the bow with composure, prostration, sitting upright from it, and tranquillity (ṭumaʾnīna) in all of these motions—even during the act of rising.