Isa ibn Abd Allah ibn Malik, who is an unknown narrator, as noted earlier under “Bowing.” Even if this wording were authentic, the report that affirms the occurrence of this sitting—as found in the sound hadith—would still take precedence, because a positive report outweighs a negative one, as established in usul al-fiqh. Should the two reports be deemed equally reliable, they could still be reconciled by saying that this version negates the posture of tawarruk (sitting with the left buttock on the ground) but does not negate the iftirash (sitting on the left foot) affirmed in the first version; there is therefore no conflict, though this solution is rather remote. Allah knows best. Mention of this sitting also appears in one chain of the hadith of “the man who prayed poorly,” reported by al-Bukhari (11/31). Al-Bukhari himself, however, indicated that its inclusion there is an error by certain transmitters, and al-Bayhaqi stated this explicitly. Ibn Hajar notes this in Fath al-Bari and comments in al-Talkhis (3/488): “This is the more plausible view.” Be aware that some reports attributed to the Prophet ﷺ contradict this sound sunnah; they must be pointed out so that no one is misled into opposing his practice. Among them is the hadith of Wa’il ibn Hujr: when the Prophet ﷺ went into prostration, he placed his knees on the ground before his hands; after prostrating, he put his forehead between his hands and spread his arms away from his sides; and when he rose, he did so on his knees, leaning on his thighs. Abu Dawud and others recorded this report, as mentioned earlier under “Prostration” (p. 716). There we explained that its chain is broken because it is narrated by Abd al-Jabbar ibn Wa’il from his father. Al-Nawawi (3/446) said: