and Salama ibn Hishām, and the oppressed among the believers(1). O Allah, seize Mudar with severity and afflict them with years like the years of Joseph.”(2)

Likewise, he would say:

“O Allah, curse Ri'l, Dhakwān, and Usayya.”(3)

He thus supplicated during his prayer(4) for specific people by name and against specific tribes by name. Anyone who declares the prayer invalid on account of something like this holds a position just as unsound as his position that blessings must be invoked upon particular people.

Ahl al-Sunnah do not make this obligatory(5), nor do they prohibit that. They require only what Allah Most High and His Messenger have made obligatory, and prohibit only what Allah and His Messenger have prohibited.

If, however, he means that invoking blessings upon the family of Muhammad, to the exclusion of all others, is obligatory, the response is:

First, scholars have differed over this. The majority hold that, during the ritual prayer, it is not obligatory [to invoke blessings](6) upon either the Prophet—may blessings and peace be upon him—or his family. This is the position of Abū Hanīfa and Mālik, and one of the two positions reported from Ahmad. Some people [- namely al-Tahāwī -](7) and others have claimed that this was an early consensus. The second position is