“a man does not straighten his spine when he lifts his head from ruku or from sujud.” This wording is anomalous, yet other evidence that supports it will be cited below. Al-Tirmidhi said: “The people of knowledge—among the Prophet’s Companions and those who came after them—act on this hadith; they hold that a man must straighten his spine in ruku and in sujud. Al-Shafii, Ahmad, and Ishaq stated: Whoever does not straighten his spine in ruku and sujud, his prayer is invalid because of this hadith.” End quote. Al-Marwazi transmits the same ruling from Ahmad and Ishaq in his Masa il. (1) It is possible that the Prophet combined all of these formulas, or some of them, or confined himself to just one of them; each option is permissible, and we have found no explicit text giving preference to any particular possibility. Hence Ibn al-Qayyim says in Zad (1/37): “He would say: subhana rabbi al-azim (Glory be to my Lord, the Most Great). At other times he would add to it—or recite in its stead—subhanaka allahumma rabbana wa bihamdik, allahumma ighfir li (Glory be to You, O Allah, our Lord, and by Your praise; O Allah, forgive me).” Al-Nawawi, in al-Adhkar, writes: “The optimal course is to combine all of these invocations if one is able; the same applies to the adhkar in every section.” The scholar Siddiq Hasan Khan critiques this in Nuzl al-Abrar (p. 84): “One should recite this formula on one occasion and that on another. I see no proof for combining them. The Messenger of Allah did not gather them in a single pillar; rather, he would say this once and that another time. Following his example is better than inventing new practices.”