Anas ibn Malik said: “When the prayer was about to be established, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ turned his face toward us and said…”—and he related the same words.

Al-Bukhari adds in one version: “before he pronounced the opening takbīr,” and at the end he also adds: “Each of us would press his shoulder against the shoulder of his companion and his foot against his companion’s foot.”

Al-Mukhlis records it in the wording:
Anas said, “I actually saw each of us pressing his shoulder against the shoulder of his companion and his foot against his companion’s foot.”

If you were to try that today, one of them would bolt as though he were a skittish mule.

Its chain of transmission is also sound according to the criteria of the two Shaykhs, and al-Hāfiẓ attributed it to Saʿīd ibn Manṣūr and al-Ismāʿīlī.

Al-Bukhari headed the chapter that contains this ḥadith with the title:
“Chapter: Placing the shoulder next to the shoulder and the foot next to the foot in the row.”

As for the ḥadith of al-Nuʿmān, it reads:
“Straighten your rows three times. By Allah, you will straighten your rows, or He will cause your hearts to differ.”

32 – “Straighten your rows three times. By Allah, you will straighten your rows, or He will cause your hearts to differ.”

It was recorded by Abū Dāwūd (no. 662), Ibn Ḥibbān (396), Aḥmad (4/276), and al-Dulabī in al-Kunā (2/86) from Abū al-Qāsim al-Jadali, Ḥusayn ibn al-Ḥārith, who said: I heard al-Nuʿmān ibn Bashīr say: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ turned to the people with his face and said…”—and he narrated it.