is authentic, particularly since several of its chains are rated sound by al-Ṭaḥāwī.

Vocabulary of the ḥadīth:
– istatamma: one says istatamma yastatim, meaning: he completed his standing.

Points derived from the ḥadīth:

1. As noted earlier, the stronger view is that sitting for the first tashahhud—and reciting the tashahhud itself—are both obligatory parts of the prayer. Whoever omits them deliberately invalidates his prayer, while whoever omits them inadvertently compensates with the prostration of forgetfulness.
2. The present ḥadīth indicates that if someone forgets the sitting of the first tashahhud and rises, then, if he becomes fully upright before remembering, he should not return; rather, he performs two prostrations of forgetfulness before the salām.
3. If he remembers before he is fully upright, he must go back, sit down, and recite the tashahhud.
4. The apparent purport of the ḥadīth is that no prostration is required once he returns, because he has made up the obligation and fulfilled it. A group of scholars adopted this view and did not obligate the prostration of forgetfulness.
   Their evidence also includes the sound ḥadīth: “There is no forgetfulness in a single movement within the prayer except in rising from sitting or sitting from standing.” [Narrated by al-Dāraqutnī (1/377) and al-Ḥākim (1/471); al-Ḥāfiẓ declared it weak in al-Talkhīṣ (2/3).]

The Ḥanafīs hold that if he has become fully upright and then returns while he is still closer to standing than to sitting, he must perform the prostration of forgetfulness; but if he is closer to sitting, then, according to the sound view, no prostration is due.

The Ḥanbalīs maintain that he is required to perform the prostration of forgetfulness because of this movement. Their proof is the report narrated by al-Bayhaqī (2/343) and others from Anas that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) “moved to stand during the last two rakʿahs of the ʿAṣr prayer; the congregation glorified Allah to alert him, so he sat back down and then performed the prostration of forgetfulness.”

Al-Ḥāfiẓ said: its transmitters are trustworthy. They also cite the ḥadīth under discussion, in which the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “When any of you rises after the two rakʿahs and is not yet fully upright, let him sit down and perform the two prostrations of forgetfulness.”