become heavy, and that he did so from necessity rather than as a prescribed devotional act. This conjecture is mistaken; a sound sunnah cannot be set aside on such a basis—especially when the practice has been reported by more than a dozen Companions. How could such eminent witnesses have missed, if it were true, that the Prophet ﷺ acted only out of need and not as worship, when among them was Malik ibn al-Huwayrith—may Allah be pleased with him—the Companion to whom the Prophet ﷺ said: “Pray as you have seen me pray”? The eyewitness perceives what the absentee does not. How, then, could this have escaped those early authorities, only to be discovered centuries later by scholars such as al-Tahawi and Ibn al-Qayyim, who offer no proof beyond conjecture—“and indeed conjecture avails nothing against the truth” (Q 53:28)? It is no surprise when someone like al-Tahawi, who for the most part devoted himself to defending Abu Hanifah’s school, takes this route; what truly astonishes me is that Ibn al-Qayyim—the champion and standard-bearer of the Sunnah—should do the same. Yet every fine steed stumbles, and more than once. May Allah have mercy on Imam Malik, who said: “None of us but that his words are accepted and rejected—except the inhabitant of this grave,” meaning the Prophet ﷺ. Indeed, Ibn al-Qayyim sought to justify abandoning support on the hands by citing, in his treatise al-Salah, a hadith from Ibn Umar: that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ forbade a man to lean on his hands when rising in prayer. The words “when rising” are an unsound addition reported only by Muhammad ibn Abd al-Malik al-Ghazzal, a transmitter known for frequent mistakes. Consequently, that wording cannot be relied upon, particularly when it contradicts the established practice of the Prophet ﷺ, as we have shown in al-Taʿliqat al-Jiyad.