or they completed it on their own once they learned the Sunnah. In either case, they completed it after considerable movement and after leaving the mosque.

As for claiming that they were instructed to restart the prayer, no one has transmitted this. Had he instructed them to do so, it would have been transmitted. Nor were they at fault for what they had done.

In one form of the prayer of fear, he leads one group in a unit of prayer while the other faces the enemy. The first group then goes to join their companions’ ranks while still in prayer, moving about and turning their backs to the qiblah. The other group then comes, and he leads them in one unit, after which they go to join their companions’ ranks. Each group then prays another unit on its own. This involves considerable walking and turning away from the qiblah while they are still in prayer.

For either group, there may be a delay between the first and second units as they walk to their companions’ ranks, their companions come to stand behind the imam, pray behind him, and then return to the other group’s ranks. Only after all this do they pray the second unit. They remain standing in prayer throughout this movement and waiting, but do not perform that unit until all of this is over. It is thus clear that uninterrupted succession between the units of prayer is not obligatory when facing the enemy. It is even less necessary for the two prostrations to follow the prayer without interruption.

This differs from uninterrupted succession between the constituent parts of a single unit. This is the position of Mālik and Ahmad. Hence, if someone forgets an essential element, such as bowing, and remembers while still in the first unit—for example, after performing both prostrations—he performs the bowing and what follows it