And know, dear reader, that the hadiths from which the scholars—whatever their school—have extracted numerous legal rulings solely on the basis of the Prophet’s tacit approval are far too many to tally. Were a researcher to attempt to gather them in a single work and discuss each of them both in terms of transmission and meaning, the result would fill a volume, if not more.

From this you can see how perilous that speculative “perhaps” truly is; it is driven by nothing but blind imitation and partisan defense of one’s preferred school or personal opinion. A case in point is the famous story of the noble Companion Muʿāwiyah ibn al-Ḥakam al-Sulamī, may Allah be pleased with him. He preserved for us the Prophet’s question to a slave-girl—“Where is Allah?”—her reply, “In heaven,” and his ﷺ verdict concerning her: “She is a believer.” Muʿāwiyah, who had only recently embraced Islam, was once praying behind the Prophet when he suddenly called out, “Wā thaklā Ummiyāh! What is the matter with you that you are staring at me?” The remainder of the story is found in Sahih Muslim and elsewhere, and it is documented in al-Irwāʾ (2/111/390).

The scholars, including the Shāfiʿīs, cited this narration as proof that the speech of an uninformed person inside the prayer does not nullify it—subject, of course, to certain details. Al-Nawawī said in his commentary on Muslim: “Because the Prophet ﷺ did not order him to repeat the prayer.” Ibn Taymiyyah said the same in his Fatāwā (20/366 and 22/624).

A moment ago I said, “And this is the time of temptation…” only because of the words of al-ʿAbbās, may Allah be pleased with him—as related in ʿAlī’s report reproduced earlier in this book (p. 28, sixth edition):

“Messenger of Allah, why did you twist your cousin’s neck?”

He ﷺ replied:

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