Its chain of transmission is authentic. His expression “ḥafazanī al-nafs” (lit. “my breath prodded me”) means that his breathing had become laboured; the verb ḥafz denotes urging on and haste, and this is a euphemism for running.

Third: his bowing outside the row and then walking forward until he joined it.

Once these points are clear, we must ask: does his statement ﷺ, “Do not do it again,” prohibit all three actions or only some of them? This is what I wish to examine in detail.

1. As for the first matter, the apparent sense is that it is not included in the prohibition. Had the Prophet ﷺ forbidden it, he would have ordered him to repeat the prayer, because it would have been deficient—short one rakʿah. Since he did not command him to repeat it, this indicates that the prayer was sound and that the prohibition does not cover counting the rakʿah merely by catching its bowing. Al-Ṣanʿānī’s remark in Subul al-Salām (2/23), “Perhaps he ﷺ did not instruct him because he was unaware of the ruling, and ignorance is an excuse,” is extremely unlikely. It is established in the two Ṣaḥīḥs, in the ḥadith of Abū Hurayrah, that the Prophet ﷺ ordered the man who prayed incorrectly to repeat his prayer three times, even though that man too was ignorant. How then could he command the latter—who had not missed a single rakʿah but only lacked composure—and yet not order Abū Bakrah to repeat the prayer when, if the rakʿah could not be caught by bowing, he would actually have missed one? And how could the act be forbidden when leading Companions practised it, as the previous ḥadith showed? For these reasons we are certain that this first matter is not included in his words ﷺ, “Do not do it again.”

2. Regarding the second matter, we have no doubt that it is included in the prohibition because of the previously cited narrations and because nothing contradicts them; rather, other evidence supports them, namely the marfūʿ ḥadith of Abū Hurayrah: “When you come to the prayer, do not approach it running; come to it with calmness and dignity.” The report is agreed upon.

3. The third matter, however, requires reflection. The plain wording of Abū Dāwūd’s version—“Which of you bowed behind the row and then walked up to the row?”—together with the Prophet’s saying to him, “Do not do it again,” in its unrestricted form, suggests that this action too may be included, even though the text is not explicit, for it is possible that he meant