said (1): “I remember the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, observing two pauses: one when he pronounced the opening declaration of Allah’s greatness, and another when he finished reciting ‘not of those who have incurred Your anger, nor of those who have gone astray’ [al-Fātihah: 7]” (2). In some chains of transmission, the wording is: “And when he finished reciting, he paused” (3). This wording is somewhat general, whereas the first wording is explicit and clear.
For this reason, Abū Salamah ibn Abd al-Rahmān said (4): “The imam observes two pauses, so take the opportunity to recite al-Fātihah during them”: when he begins the prayer (5), and when he says, “nor of those who have gone astray.” However, the identification of where the two pauses occur comes only from Qatādah’s explanation (6), for he
(1) This is the wording in م, ق, مب, ن, except that huwa (he) is absent from مب, ن, and qad (already) is absent from ق. The other manuscripts read: “The hadith concerning the two pauses has been authenticated through reports from Samurah, Ubayy ibn Kaʿb, and ʿImrān ibn Husayn. Abū Hātim mentioned this in his Sahīh. He is Samurah …” A passage resembling this was added in the margin of ن, and the printed editions conflated the two versions.
(2) Reported by Abū Dāwūd (779), through Qatādah, from al-Hasan, from Samurah.
(3) Reported by Ibn Hibbān (1807), through Qatādah, from al-Hasan, from Samurah. It was also reported by Abū Dāwūd (780), al-Tirmidhī (251), and Ibn Mājah (844). In their versions, the explanation of the two pauses is attributed to Qatādah, as in the wording quoted by the author. Full documentation of its sources will follow there.
(4) Reported by al-Bukhārī in Juzʾ al-Qirāʾah (Treatise on Recitation) (165), and Ibn Hazm in al-Muhallā (3/238). Immediately afterward, al-Bukhārī also reported the same statement from Abū Hurayrah, through Abū Salamah, with a good (hasan) chain of transmission.
(5) ص: “al-qirāʾah (the recitation).”
(6) However, Ahmad (20166), al-Dārimī (1279), and al-Bukhārī in Juzʾ al-Qirāʾah (278) reported, through Humayd al-Tawīl, from al-Hasan, from Samurah ibn Jundub, that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, observed two pauses: one when beginning the prayer, and another after finishing the second surah, before bowing. This was then mentioned to ʿImrān ibn Husayn … [the hadith continues]. The same is reported by Ahmad (20127, 20266) and al-Bazzār (4542), through Yūnus, from al-Hasan, from Samurah. It therefore appears that the explanation was given by Samurah or al-Hasan.