are its original speaker or its transmitter known, nor is it reported from any Companion or Successor. Perhaps it is among the reports derived from Israelite traditions; rejecting its use as evidence is therefore a simple matter.

As for the distinction it contains between deeds that are commanded and those that are not, this distinction is established by the Quran, the Sunnah, and the consensus of the Muslim community. Whenever hadiths of unknown authenticity or weak hadiths contain both what accords with the foundations of Islam and what does not, we accept the truth and reject falsehood. Thus, we accept from this account what accords with those foundations—the part accepted by Bakr ibn Hubaysh, al-Sarī, and others—and reject what contradicts them—the part rejected by Imam Ahmad and other rightly guided imams. Yet Ahmad was among the strongest advocates of the distinction al-Sarī intended between what is commanded and what is not. He was also among the foremost in enjoining prescribed deeds and forbidding those that are not prescribed.

Furthermore, in al-Sarī’s account, perhaps by “letters” he meant only the ink with which the letters are written, which then prostrated. For he said: “They prostrated to Him, except alif, which said, ‘I will not prostrate until I am commanded.’” This alludes to the upright form of alif and the lower forms of the other letters. What is intended here is the shape taken by the ink used in writing. As for the letters Allah revealed in His Book, their status does not vary with the different shapes of the ink used to write them.

Perhaps this is also what was intended in Ibn ‘Atā’s account, if it has any basis. Ibn Qutaybah mentioned in al-Ma‘ārif that when Allah sent Adam down, He sent down