I add: al-Haythami’s judgment is sound; nevertheless, this Bashir [b. al-Muhajir] is “truthful but his narrations are weak” (saduq, layyin al-hadith), as Ibn Hajar states in al-Taqrib. (1) Al-Sindi comments: “That is, he lengthens those letters that are susceptible to elongation, using the extra time to ponder, reflect, and remind anyone willing to take heed.” (2) In other words, he draws out the alif that follows the mim and the ya that follows the ha. It is well known that, when the two blessed names are recited in continuous reading, the elongation (madd) should not exceed the measure of one alif; this is the basic, inherent, or natural madd. When stopping with a moderate pause, one may extend them to the length of two alifs, or at most three, which is the so-called incidental madd. The same principle applies elsewhere, and the detailed rules of madd are discussed in the manuals of Qurʾanic recitation. As for the innovation of many present-day reciters—even some of our prayer-leaders—who stretch the natural madd to two alifs or more while sometimes shortening the obligatory madd, may Allah neither prolong their lives nor grant success to their affairs. Such is the verdict of Shaykh ʿAli al-Qari in his Sharh al-Shamaʾil. (3) This comes in the hadith of Anas. Qatada said: “I asked Anas b. Malik about the Prophet’s recitation, and he replied, ‘He would elongate it.’” Al-Bukhari records it in his Sahih (9/74) and in al-Afʿal al-ʿIbad (81); also Abu Dawud (1/231), al-Nasaʾi (1/157), al-Tirmidhi in al-Shamaʾil (2/137–138), al-Bayhaqi (2/52), and Ahmad (3/119, 127, 198) through Jarir b. Hazim al-Azdi from Anas.