“For each surah, one rak‘ah.” For this reason al-Tahawi cited the hadith under the heading “Chapter: Combining surahs in a single rak‘ah,” and then said: “A group of scholars have adopted this view and maintain that a person should not recite in any rak‘ah more than one surah together with al-Fatihah (the Opening chapter). They use this hadith as their proof.” It is also possible that the hadith means: “for every surah, a rak‘ah”—that is, a complete surah must be recited in each rak‘ah; one should not stop at part of it but must finish it so that the rak‘ah receives its full share. Ibn Nasr hinted at this interpretation as well as the previous one when he titled the hadith, “Chapter: Disapproval of cutting up surahs and of combining surahs in one rak‘ah,” after which he quoted the hadith in all three of its wordings. In short, the hadith admits of only these two meanings. I personally incline to the second (*) rather than the first, even though those I named adopt the latter, because the Prophet’s ﷺ statements cannot be understood correctly except alongside his other words and actions; and we have already noted in the main text that his habitual practice ﷺ was to complete the surah, only rarely limiting himself to part of it. Accordingly, the hadith points to perfect recitation, namely completing the surah. His ﷺ rare limitation to a portion of a surah was merely to show permissibility with slight disapproval, for it is contrary to what is superior. Yet this does not preclude adding another surah, for that is more complete and more virtuous. How could it be otherwise when it is authentically reported that he ﷺ sometimes recited two or more surahs in a single rak‘ah and used to say, “The best prayer is that with long standing”! (*) The Shaykh—may Allah have mercy on him—eventually affirmed this view, as in the printed edition of al-Sifah, saying: “In my opinion the meaning of the hadith is: assign a complete surah to each rak‘ah so that the rak‘ah’s share is complete. The imperative is one of recommendation, as the context that follows makes clear.”