It also states that the imam on that occasion was ʿAmmār ibn Yāsir, and the one who pulled him back was Hudhayfah. Al-Ḥāfiẓ remarked: “There is an unidentified narrator in this chain, and the first version is stronger.”

The ḥadīth, therefore, is proof that it is prohibited for the imam to stand in an elevated spot. The jurists have differed on the issue. Al-Nawawī, may Allah have mercy on him, says in al-Majmūʿ:

“Our scholars hold that it is disliked (makrūh) for the place of the imam or the congregation to be higher than the other’s. If elevation is needed—for example, to show them the actions of the prayer, or so that a prompter can relay the imam’s takbīrs to the people, and the like—then raising oneself is recommended in order to realise that benefit. This is our school, and it is one narration from Abū Ḥanīfah. Another narration from him deems any elevation disliked without qualification, and that is also the position of Mālik and al-Awzāʿī. Shaykh Abū Ḥāmid related from al-Awzāʿī that he said: ‘The prayer is invalid.’”

I say: Perhaps his basis for such a ruling is that the prohibition occurs specifically in the context of prayer, which would imply invalidity; Allah knows best. One might have expected this opinion from Ibn Ḥazm, yet, on the contrary, he considered it permissible, citing in support the forthcoming ḥadīth of Sahl ibn Saʿd—which, as will be shown, contains no proof—and he declared the aforementioned ḥadīth of Ibn Masʿūd weak, saying:

“It is a worthless report transmitted solely by Ziyād ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Bakkāʾī, and he is weak.”

Such was his verdict, yet the report is not so weak as to be dismissed outright, nor is Ziyād its sole transmitter, as has already been clarified.

Furthermore, al-Ṭabarī narrated in his al-Kabīr from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd that he disliked