reciting, ‘By those sent forth in succession’ [al-Mursalāt: 1]. She said, ‘My son, your recitation of this surah has reminded me that it was the last surah I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) recite during the sunset prayer.’”

It is related in the two Sahīhs from Muhammad ibn Jubayr ibn Mut'im, from his father, who said: “I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) recite Sūrat al-Tūr during the sunset prayer.” Al-Bukhārī and the Sunan collections also relate from Marwān ibn al-Hakam that he said: Zayd ibn Thābit said to me, “Why do you recite the short surahs of the mufassal section during the sunset prayer, when I saw the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) recite the longer of the two long surahs during it?” He said: “I asked, ‘Which is the longer of the two long surahs?’ He replied, ‘Sūrat al-A'rāf.’”

These hadiths are among the most authentic of hadiths. They establish that during the sunset prayer he would sometimes recite Sūrat al-A'rāf, sometimes Sūrat al-Tūr, and sometimes Sūrat al-Mursalāt—even though the jurists agree that the Sunnah is for the recitation during the sunset prayer to be shorter than the recitation during the dawn prayer. What, then, should the recitation during the dawn prayer and the other prayers be like?

Another report belonging to this topic is that narrated by Wakī' from Mansūr, from Ibrāhīm al-Nakha'ī, who said: Abū Ubayda ibn Abd Allah ibn Mas'ūd would prolong the standing for as long as the bowing, and they would criticize him for doing so. Abū Muhammad ibn Hazm said: “The blame belongs to whoever criticizes the practice of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and relies on someone whose example constitutes no proof.” I say: Abū Ubayda’s practice as recorded in the Sahīh has already been mentioned, as has its conformity with the practice of