that Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq and Zayd ibn Thābit once entered the mosque while the imam was already in bowing posture. They therefore bowed, and—still bowing—shuffled forward until they reached the row.

I say: Its narrators are trustworthy. Had it not been that Makḥūl transmits it from Abū Bakr ibn al-Ḥārith with ʿanʿana, I would have graded it ḥasan (sound). Through Zayd ibn Thābit, however, the isnād is authentic, as will be shown shortly.

2 – Abū Umāmah ibn Sahl ibn Ḥunayf related that he saw Zayd ibn Thābit enter the mosque while the imam was bowing; he walked until he could reach the row, then—still bowing—pronounced the opening takbīr, bowed, and edged forward in that posture until he reached the row. Al-Bayhaqī narrated it (2/90; 3/106), and its chain is authentic.

3 – Zayd ibn Wahb said:
“I went out with ʿAbdullāh—meaning Ibn Masʿūd—from his house to the mosque. When we had reached the middle of the mosque the imam bowed, so ʿAbdullāh uttered the takbīr and bowed, and I bowed with him. We then walked on while bowing until we joined the row just as the people were raising their heads. When the imam completed the prayer I stood up, thinking that I had missed the rakʿah, but ʿAbdullāh took me by the hand, seated me, and said, ‘You have indeed caught it.’”

Ibn Abī Shaybah recorded it in al-Muṣannaf (1/99/1–2); al-Ṭaḥāwī in Sharḥ al-Maʿānī (1/231–232); al-Ṭabarānī in al-Muʿjam al-Kabīr (3/32/1); and al-Bayhaqī in his Sunan (2/90–91) with an authentic chain. Al-Ṭabarānī also reports it through additional routes.