I say: This, God willing, is the correct position. Yet the Sunnah has established that this pillar and others may be lengthened—as will be shown below—especially in the night prayer, until it nearly equals his standing (qiyam). If a Muslim wishes to imitate the Prophet in this practice, he can do so only by combining the various formulas, the option preferred by al-Nawawi; in this case I see no objection to combining them. If, however, he restricts himself to a single formula, he can achieve the desired length only by repeating that one formula—something explicitly mentioned for some of these invocations—and this is closer to the Sunnah. Allah knows best. After writing the above I found corroboration in Qiyam al-Layl (p. 76) from Ata: Ibn Jurayj said, ‘I asked Ata: “What do you say in ruku?” He replied, “If I am not hurried, and no one with me is rushing, I say: subhanaka wa-bihamdik, la ilaha illa anta, subhana rabbana in kana wa‘du rabbina lamaf‘ulan (Glory be to You and by Your praise; there is no god but You; glory be to our Lord—indeed the promise of our Lord will be fulfilled) three times; then subhana-llahi al-azim (Glory be to Allah, the Most Great) three times; then subhana-llahi wa-bihamdih (Glory be to Allah and by His praise) three times; then subhana al-maliki al-quddus (Glory be to the King, the All-Holy) three times; then subbuh quddus, rabb al-malaikati wa-l-ruh, tasbiqu rahmata rabbi ghadabah (All-Perfect, All-Holy, Lord of the angels and the Spirit; my Lord’s mercy outstrips His wrath) several times.”’ He added, ‘In sujud I say exactly what I say in ruku.’ I often heard Ibn al-Zubayr saying in his prostration—and he also related this to us—subbuh… and so on. 1. Numerous hadiths, taken together, prove that the tasbih is to be limited to three repetitions, contrary to Ibn al-Qayyim in Kitab al-Salat (p. 191) and to Abu al-Tayyib in al-Rawda al-Nadiyya (1/106), who said: ‘As for restricting it to a specific number, there is no proof for that; the Companions merely estimated different lengths for his ruku and sujud.’ Below are the reports we have located that stipulate three repetitions.