about the very matter these people have been asking you.’ I said: ‘I want to ask you about the prayer of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.’ He replied, ‘There is no benefit for you in that!’ He repeated the request, whereupon Abu Saʿid related it in roughly the same terms, adding one extra point. This wording is that of al-Bukhari. (1) This refers to the ḥadith of Abu Qatadah. It is reported by Abu Dawud and others (see note 1 above) with an authentic chain. Some Shafiʿi jurists cited it to allow the imam to prolong the bowing (rukuʿ) so that a late-comer can catch the rakʿah. Al-Qurtubi objected: ‘There is no proof in it, for motives cannot serve as legal causes; they are either hidden or not precisely definable.’ The same observation is found in Fath al-Bari. A detailed discussion of this question—and the evidence for its permissibility—has already been given after the section on “Amin”; consult it there. (2) It is also narrated from Abu Saʿid, who said: ‘We used to estimate the standing of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ in the noon (zuhr) and afternoon (ʿasr) prayers. We determined that in zuhr his standing in the first two rakʿahs was about the length of a thirty-verse recitation, roughly the length of the surah that opens with “Tanzil…” (al-Sajdah). We estimated that his standing in the last two rakʿahs was half of that. In ʿasr we reckoned that his standing in the first two rakʿahs was half of the zuhr measure, and in the final two rakʿahs half again of the first two.’ [1] Also recorded by Ibn Khuzaymah, 1/165/1 (= 3/36/1580).