the Musnad of Abū Dāwūd al-Tayālisī, where ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUqbah narrates from Ibn Masʿūd that he said:

“The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, sent us to the Negus. We were eighty men, and Jaʿfar ibn Abī Tālib was with us.”

He then related the account of their audience with the Negus. At its conclusion, he said: “Ibn Masʿūd then returned and hastened to participate in the Battle of Badr.”

There are three views concerning this difficult issue, variously held by adherents of Ahmad and others.

The first—the view of the followers of Abū Hanīfah, Judge Abū Yaʿlā, and a group of their followers—is that the incident reported in the hadith of Dhū al-Yadayn preceded the prohibition of speaking during prayer. They thought that his incident occurred before Badr, arguing that Dhū al-Yadayn was killed at Badr, so the incident must have taken place before then. They said that speaking during prayer was prohibited later in Medina, as related in the two Sahīh collections from Zayd ibn Arqam, who said:

“We used to speak during prayer in the time of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. One of us would speak to his companion about something he needed, until the following was revealed: ‘Guard strictly the prayers, especially the middle prayer, and stand before Allah in devout obedience.’ We were then commanded to remain silent and forbidden to speak.”

Al-Bukhārī’s version does not include the words, “and forbidden to speak.” In a version reported by al-Tirmidhī, he said:

“We used to speak during prayer behind the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace.”

Zayd ibn Arqam was one of the younger Ansār, and he was the man whose hearing was vindicated by