They would also sometimes recite in the two ʿĪd prayers:
“Qāf. By the Glorious Qur’an” (Q 50 : 1) and “The Hour has drawn near” (Q 54 : 1), for this, too, is authentically reported from him—peace and blessings be upon him.

The jurists disagreed on several ancillary points, the most famous of which concerns the number of extra takbirs. Abū Bakr ibn al-Mundhir cited roughly twelve different opinions on the matter. Here we shall mention only the well-known views that rest on a Companion’s practice or a reliably transmitted report:

• Mālik holds that in the first rakʿah of the two ʿĪd prayers there are seven takbirs—including the opening takbir—before the recitation, and in the second rakʿah six takbirs, counting the takbir said when rising from prostration.

• Al-Shāfiʿī says: eight takbirs in the first rakʿah, and six in the second, counting the takbir of rising from prostration.

• Abū Ḥanīfah maintains that, after the opening takbir, three additional takbirs are pronounced in the first rakʿah, the hands being raised each time. One then recites Sūrat al-Fātiḥah and another sūrah, bows with a takbir—without raising the hands—and, on standing for the second rakʿah, pronounces one takbir without hand-raising, recites al-Fātiḥah and another sūrah, then utters three takbirs raising the hands each time, followed by the bowing takbir with no hand-raising.

• A fourth position states that there are nine takbirs in every rakʿah; this is narrated from Ibn ʿAbbās, al-Mughīrah ibn Shuʿbah, Anas ibn Mālik, and Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab, and it is likewise the view of al-Nakhaʿī.

The source of their disagreement lies in the divergent reports transmitted from the Companions.

Mālik—may Allah have mercy on him—followed the narration he received from Ibn ʿUmar, who said: “I attended the ʿĪd al-Aḍḥā and ʿĪd al-Fiṭr prayers with Abū Hurayrah; in the first rakʿah he pronounced seven takbirs before the recitation, and in the second five before the recitation.” The prevailing practice in Madinah matched this, and al-Shāfiʿī adopted the same report, though he interpreted the seven as not including the opening takbir, just as the five do not include the takbir of rising. It seems Mālik counted the opening takbir among the seven and considered the takbir of rising an addition to the five, because that was the practice he found in Madinah; thus he had a way of harmonizing the report with local custom. Abū Dāwūd has likewise transmitted the substance of Abū Hurayrah’s report as a marfūʿ ḥadīth from ʿĀʾishah and from ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ.

It is also related that Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī and Ḥudhayfah ibn al-Yamān were once asked, “How did the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—pronounce the takbirs in ʿĪd al-Aḍḥā and ʿĪd al-Fiṭr?” Abū Mūsā replied, “He would say four takbirs, the same number used in the Funeral Prayer.”