Others may hold that it is a strongly emphasized Sunnah, or that it is a communal obligation. They also differ over who should take precedence in leading the prayer.

He instructs them to arrange their rows as the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, commanded, observing five Sunnah practices: straightening the rows, standing closely together within them, bringing the rows close together, filling the first row before the next, and positioning the imam centrally. This includes forbidding what the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, forbade—praying alone behind the row—and ordering anyone who does so to repeat the prayer, as the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, commanded in two reliably established hadiths. He ordered the person praying alone behind the row to repeat his prayer, just as he ordered the man who prayed improperly to repeat his prayer, and the man who performed his ablution improperly, leaving a fingernail-sized area of his foot untouched by water, to repeat it. These cases establish that ritual purity, standing in rows and performing the pillars of prayer are requirements for its validity.

Among those who did not follow the hadith concerning someone praying alone behind the row, such as Abū Hanīfa, Mālik and al-Shāfi‘ī, were some whom it had not reached or who did not consider its authenticity established. Al-Shāfi‘ī regarded it as contradicted by the fact that the imam prays alone, by the fact that Mulayka, the grandmother of Anas, prayed behind them, and by the hadith of Abū Bakra, who bowed before reaching the row.

As for Ahmad, his principle concerning hadiths that appear to conflict in two similar but nonidentical cases is to apply each hadith to its proper circumstances and not reject either one