as referring to a medium-length verse, neither exceptionally short nor especially long.

Abū al-Baqāʾ al-ʿAkbarī, one of our colleagues, says something similar in his commentary on al-Hidāyah. He writes: “I have not found that our scholars set any limit for the portion of a verse that a person in a state of major ritual impurity (janābah) may recite. The apparent sense of their words is that this is permissible no matter how large the portion, and that (1) it is treated as the equivalent of medium-length verses.”

He then adds: “In my view, the matter should not be taken this way; rather, the ‘portion’ ought to be less than a medium-length verse, provided it forms a complete statement that is not grammatically tied to what precedes or follows it.”

Ibn ʿAqīl said: “If we hold that al-Fātiḥa is not specifically required, then the worshipper must recite either seven verses whose total letters equal those of al-Fātiḥa, or simply seven verses even if their letters are fewer—two alternative views.”

Abū al-Barakāt Ibn Taymiyyah commented: “This contradicts the explicit texts of Aḥmad mentioned earlier and is a slip, because making ‘seven verses’ the yardstick is a corollary of deeming al-Fātiḥa obligatory, not of the view that it is not obligatory.”

Ibn ʿAqīl later turned back and revoked (2) his own statement in another place, saying: