beyond its appointed time, until the prescribed time for it had passed. Some of them also failed to complete the takbīrs (“Allah is Most Great”)—that is, they did not pronounce them aloud when moving into bowing and other postures—and some did not properly complete the two upright postures. These practices spread among the people: the young grew up with them, and the old grew elderly observing them, until even many of the elite thought that nothing else was the Sunnah. When rulers came who revived the Sunnah, however, this became apparent.

Thus al-Bukhārī narrated in his Sahīh, from Qatāda, from Ikrima, who said:

“I prayed behind an elderly man in Mecca, and he pronounced twenty-two takbīrs. I said to Ibn Abbās, ‘He really is a fool!’ He replied, ‘May your mother be bereaved of you! This is the Sunnah of Abū al-Qāsim, may Allah bless him and grant him peace.’”

In Abū Bishr’s narration from Ikrima, he said:

“I saw a man at the Station of Abraham pronouncing the takbīr whenever he lowered or raised himself, stood up or went down. I told Ibn Abbās, and he said, ‘Was that not the prayer of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace? May you be motherless!’”

What this means is that this imam pronounced the takbīrs aloud. The imams behind whom Ikrima prayed did not do so, while Ibn Abbās had not been an imam whose practice in this regard would have been known. Ikrima therefore objected to it until Ibn Abbās explained it to him. As for saying the takbīr itself, no one was in any doubt about that.

Similarly, most imams of later times do not pronounce the takbīrs aloud; rather, the muezzin or someone else does so. Most people therefore suppose that this is the Sunnah. Yet there is no disagreement