then say Amin”—that is, when he reaches the point at which Amin is said, as al-Hafiz explained earlier. Although Ibn al-‘Arabi regarded this as unlikely, this report makes it necessary to rely on it. Accordingly, I repeat my advice to the great majority of worshippers: they should pay attention to this sunnah and not, because of it, precede the imam in saying Amin. Rather, they should wait until they hear him pronounce the initial alif of “Amin,” and then say it along with him. We ask Allah Most High to grant us success in following the truth wherever it may be. Indeed, He is All-Hearing, Responsive.

This report contains another benefit as well: the congregants should say Amin aloud. This is also the view to which I inclined in the other book, because it accords with another authentic report from Ibn al-Zubayr and a hadith attributed to the Prophet from Abu Hurayrah, whose chain of transmission I discussed there, under no. 956; so consult it.

2535 — “A man may pray for sixty years, yet no prayer of his is accepted. Perhaps he performs the bowing fully but not the prostration, or performs the prostration fully but not the bowing.”

Al-Asbahani related it in al-Targhib (folio 236/2), through Abu al-Shaykh, from ‘Abd Allah ibn Ahmad ibn Hanbal: Abu al-Sha‘tha’ narrated to us; ‘Abdah narrated to us, from Muhammad ibn ‘Amr, from Abu Salamah, from Abu Hurayrah, attributing it to the Prophet. I say: This is a good chain of transmission. All its narrators are trustworthy, though Muhammad ibn ‘Amr has a slight weakness; the relied-upon judgement concerning him is that his hadith are good. ‘Abdah is Ibn Sulayman al-Kilabi, Abu Muhammad al-Kufi, and he is among the narrators of al-Bukhari and Muslim. Abu al-Sha‘tha’s name is ‘Ali ibn al-Hasan ibn Sulayman al-Hadrami; he is trustworthy and among Muslim’s shaykhs. Al-Hafiz al-Mundhiri did not recall the status of its chain, and so he said in al-Targhib (1/182):