This is what Ibn ‘Abbās reported from him (1). Hudhayfah reported that he would say: “My Lord, forgive me; my Lord, forgive me” (2).
His practice was to prolong this pillar of prayer for as long as the prostration. This is what all the hadiths establish concerning his practice. In the Sahīh (3), Anas reported: “The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, would sit between the two prostrations until we would say: ‘He has had a lapse.’”
Most people abandoned this sunnah after the era of the Companions had ended. Hence Thābit said: “Thus (4) Anas would do something that I do not see you doing: he would remain between the two prostrations until we would say: ‘He has forgotten or had a lapse’” (5).
But whoever takes the sunnah as the standard of judgment and disregards whatever contradicts it pays no heed to anything that departs from this guidance.
(1) Recorded by Ahmad (2895), Abū Dāwūd (850), al-Tirmidhī (284, 285), Ibn Mājah (898), and Ibn al-Mundhir in al-Awsat (3/356), all through Kāmil Abū al-‘Alā’, from Habīb ibn Abī Thābit, from Sa‘īd ibn Jubayr, from Ibn ‘Abbās. Al-Hākim (1/262) and al-Albānī in Sahīh Abī Dāwūd—al-Umm (3/436) graded it authentic. Al-Tirmidhī graded it weak, identifying the defect that it was transmitted in mursal (disconnected) form through the same chain. Its chains revolve around Kāmil ibn al-‘Alā’, Abū al-‘Alā’, who has some weakness. Those who criticized him are more numerous and more eminent than those who declared him trustworthy or assessed him favorably.
(2) Recorded by Ahmad (23375, 23399), Abū Dāwūd (874), al-Tirmidhī in al-Shamā’il (275), al-Nasā’ī in al-Mujtabā (1069, 1145, 1665) and al-Kubrā (660, 735, 1382, 1383), and al-Bayhaqī (2/109). An abbreviated version was recorded by al-Dārimī (1363), Ibn Mājah (897), and al-Bayhaqī (2/121). Ibn Khuzaymah (684), al-Hākim (1/321), and al-Albānī in Sahīh Abī Dāwūd—al-Umm (4/27–30) graded it authentic. The basic report appears in Muslim (772), without the passage relevant here, as noted earlier (p. 245).
(3) Recorded by Muslim (473); cited earlier.
(4) q reads “wa-kāna (and he would).” The reading adopted from the other manuscripts agrees with Sahīh Muslim.
(5) Recorded by al-Bukhārī (821) and Muslim (472).