to find among them anyone who loves this standing, which casts him into the Fire. That is because nothing exists to remind him of it—namely, the act of standing itself. The opposite is true when you look at a society such as ours today, where they have become accustomed to the standing mentioned above. This habit, especially when persisted in, reminds him of it; then the soul begins to long for it and desire it, until it comes to love it. Once he loves it, he is ruined.

Thus, as part of cooperating in righteousness and piety, this standing should be abandoned, even for one whom we presume does not like it, lest our standing for him lead him to love it. In that case, we would have helped him to bring about his own ruin, and that is not permissible.

Evidence corroborating this is that you see some people of knowledge, who are thought to possess good character, change in attitude when they notice someone who has not stood for them—assuming they do not become angry with him, accuse him of poor manners, and tell him that he will be deprived of the blessing of knowledge because, as they claim, he has failed to respect its people. Indeed, some of them even call upon people to stand and deceive them with statements such as: “You do not stand for me as a body of bone and flesh; rather, you stand for the knowledge contained in my breast!” As though, in his view, the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, possessed no knowledge, since the Companions did not stand for him; or as though the Companions did not revere him with the reverence befitting him. Would any Muslim say either of these things?

For this hadith and others, a group of scholars held that standing for another person is prohibited, as stated in al-Fatḥ (11/41). He then said:

“The sum of what is reported from Malik is his disapproval of standing so long as the person for whom one stands has not yet sat down, even if he is occupied with his own affairs. He was asked about a woman who went to great lengths in honouring her husband: she goes out to meet him, removes his clothes, and remains standing until he sits down. He replied: ‘As for going out to meet him, there is no objection to it. But as for remaining standing until he sits, no; for this is the practice of tyrants, and ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz denounced it.’”

I say: There is absolutely nothing on this subject that contradicts the implication of this hadith. Those who differed and held that such standing is permissible, or even recommended, cited hadiths, some of which are authentic and others weak. Yet, upon examining their chains and texts, none of them is sufficient to serve as evidence for that view. An example of the first category is the hadith: “Stand for your master.” The response to it has already preceded.