and fails to complete his bowing and prostration with proper alignment and stillness. The analogy drawn by the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—is among the finest, for prayer nourishes the heart just as food nourishes the body. Just as a body cannot be nourished by a meagre amount of food, the heart cannot be nourished by pecking through prayer. Rather, it needs a complete prayer to sustain it.

As for the account circulated among some of the common people, that Umar ibn al-Khattāb—may Allah be pleased with him—“saw a man pecking through his prayer and forbade him to do so. The man replied, ‘Had al-Khattāb performed even one such peck, he would not have entered the Fire.’ Umar then said nothing further to him”—this has no basis. As far as I am aware, no scholar has mentioned it among either authentic or weak reports. Its falsehood is evident, for the hypocrites pecked through far more prayer than that, yet they are in the lowest depths of the Fire.

Furthermore, Abū Abd Allāh al-Ash‘arī al-Shāmī reported:

“The Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—led his Companions in prayer, then sat among a group of them. A man entered and began to pray, bowing and pecking in his prostration while the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—watched him. He said:

‘Do you see this man? Were he to die, he would die upon a religion other than that of Muhammad, pecking through his prayer as a crow pecks at carrion. Someone who prays without completing his bowing and pecks in his prostration is like a hungry person who eats only one or two dates