“Hammad ibn Salamah and Yazid ibn Ziyad ibn Abi al-Jaʿd narrated from him. My father related, on the authority of Ishaq ibn Mansur, that Yahya ibn Maʿin said: ‘Asim al-Jahdari is thiqah (reliable).’ ” I add: two other transmitters also narrated from him—one of them himself reliable—as I demonstrated in my book Taysir Intifaʿ al-Khillan bi-Thiqat Ibn Hibban, whose completion I ask Allah to facilitate. Third: the critic in question endorsed Ibn al-Turkamani’s remark that “the matn (text) is mudtarib (internally inconsistent).” I reply: this is untenable, for a hadith is deemed mudtarib only when the conflicting versions are of equal strength, making it impossible to give preference to any of them. That is not the case here: all of the narrators, as shown above, agree on the additional phrase, so al-Hakim’s version—lacking that phrase—is the weaker reading, plain and simple. As for divergence within the isnad, that is conceded; yet such fluctuation does not disqualify the report from being used as corroborative evidence, because its weakness is not severe, as is manifest. Allah knows best. A fourth report exists, from Waʾil ibn Hujr (already cited on p. 210). The same critic declared it shadh (anomalous, 3/7), but turned a blind eye to the fact that it conveys the very meaning found in the previous marfuʿ report from Waʾil: “He then placed his right hand on the back of his left palm, wrist, and forearm” (p. 209). He himself acknowledged the soundness of its isnad (3/7). Had he ever tried to implement this authentic wording practically—placing the right hand on the left palm, wrist, and forearm without contrivance—he would have discovered that his hands inevitably rest upon the chest. He would also have realized that he and those of the Hanafi persuasion who put their hands below the navel, near the private parts (see p. 218), are in contradiction with it. The same sense appears in the hadith of Sahl ibn Saʿd: “People used to be commanded to place the right hand on the left forearm in prayer,” related by al-Bukhari and others (cited on p. 210). But the man just mentioned is unconcerned with deriving legal understanding from hadith, fearing its implications for his school. Thus people observe that he pays little heed to following the sunnah in prayer—let alone elsewhere—and that his sole interest lies in isnad grading. May Allah guide us and him. [End of the slightly abridged quotation from Sifat al-Salat, printed ed. al-Maʿarif, pp. 12–17].