in prayer; then the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, forbade them from doing so. Accordingly, this hadith is among the proofs for that.

As for interpreting it as referring to the greeting of one who is not praying being offered to one who is praying, this is incorrect, for it is established in more than one hadith that the Companions greeted the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, while he was praying, and he did not censure them for it. Rather, he affirmed this by returning their greeting with a gesture. Among such reports is the hadith of Ibn Umar, who said:

“The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, went out to Quba to pray there. The Ansar came to him and greeted him while he was praying. I said to Bilal: ‘How did you see the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, respond to them when they greeted him while he was praying?’ He said: ‘Like this,’ and he spread out his hand.” Ja‘far ibn ‘Awn—one of the hadith’s narrators—spread out his hand, placing its palm downward and its back upward.

It was narrated by Abu Dawud and others, and it is an authentic hadith, as I explained in my commentary on Kitab al-Ahkam by ‘Abd al-Haqq al-Ishbili (hadith no. 1369), and later in Sahih Abi Dawud (860). Imam Ahmad himself cited it as proof and held that it should be acted upon. Ishaq ibn Mansur al-Marwazi said in al-Masa’il (p. 22): “I asked: ‘May one greet people while they are praying?’ He replied: ‘Yes,’ and he mentioned Bilal’s account when Ibn Umar asked him, ‘How did he respond?’ He said: ‘He would gesture.’”

Al-Marwazi said: “Ishaq said the same.”

319 — “When he, peace and blessings be upon him, became advanced in age and his flesh weighed heavily upon him, he adopted a support in his place of prayer upon which he would lean.”

It was narrated by Abu Dawud (948): ‘Abd al-Salam ibn ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Wabisi narrated to us: My father narrated to us, from Shayban, from Husayn ibn ‘Abd al-Rahman, from Hilal ibn Yisaf, who said: