in question, deemed its chain of narration weak, and said, “It is only narrated through a man from Saʿīd.”

Abd Allāh ibn Ahmad (1) said: I related to my father the hadith narrated by Hassān ibn Ibrāhīm from Abd al-Malik al-Kūfī, who said: I heard al-Alā’ say: I heard Makhūl narrate from Abū Umāmah and Wāthilah: “Whenever the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, stood in prayer, he would not look to the right or left, but would direct his gaze toward the place of his prostration.” My father vehemently rejected it and said, “Cross it out.”

Ahmad, may Allah have mercy on him, thus rejected both reports. His rejection of the first was stronger because both its chain of narration and its text were unsound. As for the second, he rejected only its chain; its text was not objectionable. And Allah knows best.

Even if the first report (2) were established, it would be an account of an action that may have served a purpose connected with the prayer—just as he, peace and blessings be upon him, Abū Bakr, Umar, and Dhū al-Yadayn (3) spoke during prayer for its benefit—or a purpose serving the interests of the Muslims, as in the hadith narrated by Abū Dāwūd (4) from Abū Kabshah (5) al-Salūlī, from Sahl ibn al-Hanzaliyyah, who said:

“The call to commence the prayer was given—meaning the dawn prayer—