Hanifa which claims that raising the hands when bowing and at other points of the prayer nullifies the ṣalat. On the strength of that alleged report some of our later shaykhs even ruled that it is impermissible to follow a Shafiʿi imam. Both assertions are spurious and should be mentioned only to repudiate them, though they are found in many Hanafi legal manuals. I have clarified this in my tract al-Fawaʾid al-Bahiyya fi Tarajim al-Hanafiyya—consult it. Tell me, can any rational person maintain that an act firmly established from the Prophet ﷺ and from a number of his foremost Companions invalidates the prayer? Even if we supposed that the practice were not established—neither from the Prophet ﷺ nor from the Companions—or that it was established but later abrogated, at most it would be contrary to the sunnah, or makruh in the sense of tanzih or tahrim; none of these classifications entails that the prayer becomes invalid. Indeed, even if it were conceded to be categorically unlawful, this still would not nullify the prayer, for not every sin committed during prayer vitiates it so long as the act is not inherently inconsistent with the essence of prayer. It is plain that reciting the Quran is not incompatible with prayer; rather, prayer consists of remembrance, glorification, and recitation. How, then, can one validly rule that the prayer is nullified by such recitation? The fact that something may be deemed makruh or haram on certain grounds does not compel the conclusion that the prayer itself is void. By Allah, I am truly astonished at those who reproduce this view in their books without a word of censure, neglecting to declare it a manifest error; the most they say is that the opposite view—namely, that the prayer is not invalid—is the sounder one. They never state explicitly that this latter position is correct and that its opposite is patently wrong. The sole evidence advanced by the proponents of this frail opinion is a handful of Companion-reports, such as the narration, ‘Whoever recites behind the imam, his prayer is void.’ (1) Reported by Ibn Hibban in al-Duʿafa and, through his chain, by Ibn al-Jawzi; the transmitter Ahmad ibn ʿAli ibn Sulayman is declared unreliable. See al-Diraya, p. 95. Al-Bukhari comments: “It is not authentic.”