To sum up, some people claimed that the Companions sat because of the Prophet’s earlier instruction, while Abū Bakr alone remained standing so that he could relay the Messenger of Allah’s actions—peace and blessings be upon him.

Others said: Rather, Abū Bakr was in fact the imam, as some transmitters have explicitly reported above. Yet out of his profound respect for the Messenger—peace and blessings be upon him—he would not move before him; instead he followed him, so that he, may Allah be pleased with him, became “the imam of the imam.” For that reason the Companions stayed on their feet, following Abū Bakr as he stood, and the Ṣiddīq himself did not sit because he was the imam and because he was conveying to them the Prophet’s movements, pauses, and transitions. Allah knows best.

A third group said: There is a difference between beginning the prayer behind an imam who is standing—then the imam sits during the prayer, in which case one continues standing, as happened here—and beginning the prayer behind an imam who is already seated, in which case sitting is required by the previously cited ḥadīth. Allah knows best.

Yet others said: This incident and the earlier ḥadīth together show that both standing and sitting are permissible; each is an acceptable option—the sitting being sanctioned by the earlier command, and the standing by the later action. Allah knows best.

(Section (1): On the manner of his final illness and death—peace and blessings be upon him)

Imām Aḥmad (2) narrated: Abū Muʿāwiyah told us, al-Aʿmash told us, from Ibrāhīm al-Taymī, from al-Ḥārith ibn Suwayd, from ʿAbd Allah (meaning Ibn Masʿūd) who said:

“I entered upon the Prophet ﷺ while he was suffering from fever. I touched him and said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, you are enduring a severe fever!’

He replied, ‘Yes. I suffer as two men among you suffer.’

I said, ‘Then you will have a twofold reward.’

He said, ‘Yes—by Him in whose hand is my soul! No Muslim on earth is afflicted by any harm, whether illness or anything else, without Allah thereby removing some of his sins, just as a tree sheds its leaves.’”

Al-Bukhārī (3) and Muslim (4) also recorded the ḥadīth through several chains from Sulaymān ibn Mihrān al-Aʿmash.

Al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū Yaʿlā al-Mawṣilī said in his Musnad: Isḥāq ibn Abī Isrāʾīl told us, ʿAbd al-Razzāq told us, Maʿmar informed us, from Zayd ibn Aslam, from a man, from Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī, who said:

“He placed his hand on the Prophet ﷺ and said, ‘By Allah, I can scarcely put my hand on you because of the intensity of your fever.’

The Prophet ﷺ replied, ‘We, the company of prophets, have our trials multiplied for us just as our reward is multiplied. A prophet among the prophets would be tested with lice until it killed him, and a man would be tested with destitution until he took a cloak and pierced holes in it (5); they would even rejoice in affliction as…’