deliberately, his prayer is invalidated. According to Ahmad and others, the same applies to glorifying Allah when bowing and prostrating, and likewise to the declarations of Allah’s greatness when moving between postures.

Mālik’s position is that whoever deliberately omits three of these must repeat the prayer. Ahmad’s position is well known and applies without qualification. Ahmad’s followers state in their discussions of scholarly disagreement that requiring these remembrances is a position unique to Ahmad among the four imams. This is because Mālik’s followers call them sunnah practices. In their terminology, however, a sunnah practice may be obligatory, such that omitting it requires repeating the prayer; these practices fall into that category. Some mistakenly assume that, in their terminology, sunnah refers only to what may permissibly be omitted. That is not the case.

As for supplication, no supplication has been made obligatory on its own. Rather, the supplication required in al-Fātihah comes after praise. Likewise, those who require the prescribed supplication after the tashahhud—seeking refuge from the punishment of Hell and the grave, the trials of life and death, and the Dajjāl—require it only after the tashahhud, which is praise. This is the position of Tāwūs and one opinion within Ahmad’s school.

Furthermore, supplication has not been prescribed on its own; it has only been prescribed together with praise. Praise, however, has been prescribed on its own without any disapproval. Thus, if someone confines himself to praise while standing upright after bowing, and to glorifying Allah while bowing and prostrating, that is prescribed without any disapproval. But if he confines himself to supplication in these postures, that is not prescribed, and there is disagreement over whether his prayer is invalidated.

Moreover, praise encompasses the purpose of supplication, as in the hadith: “The best