(1) ك: “fa-qultu (so I said).” (2) Reported by al-Tirmidhī (251), Ibn Mājah (844)—whose wording is quoted here—and Abū Dāwūd (780). Al-Tirmidhī said: “This is the view of several scholars: they recommend that the imam pause after beginning the prayer and after finishing the recitation. Ahmad, Ishāq, and our companions hold this view.” Al-Bayhaqī (2/196) gives a fuller and clearer wording: “We asked Qatādah: ‘What are the two pauses?’ He replied: ‘A pause when he pronounces the opening takbīr (saying “Allah is greatest”), and another when he finishes reciting, before bowing.’ He then said again—meaning on another occasion—: ‘A pause when he pronounces the opening takbīr, and a pause when he says: “Not of those who have incurred wrath, nor of those who have gone astray.”’” Al-Tirmidhī graded the hadith as hasan (good), and Ibn Hibbān (1807) graded it as sahīh (authentic). However, al-Albānī identified defects in it because of al-Hasan’s ʿanʿanah (transmission using “from,” without explicitly affirming direct hearing) and inconsistencies in its wording, and therefore graded it as weak. He also criticized those who hold that the second pause follows al-Fātihah and should be prolonged. See al-Daʿīfah (547) and Irwāʾ al-Ghalīl (505). (3) The author, may Allah have mercy on him, also discussed the two pauses in Kitāb al-Salāh (Book of Prayer), p. 408, concluding: “… In short, no report with either an authentic or a weak chain of transmission states that he, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, used to pause after reciting al-Fātihah so that those praying behind him could recite it. The only report concerning his pausing at this point is this disputed hadith, as you have seen. Had he paused here long enough for the follower to recite al-Fātihah, this would not have escaped the Companions’ notice. Their knowing and transmitting this would have been more important than their knowing and transmitting the opening pause.”