(1) This is the hadith of Abu Humayd al-Saidi. Muhammad ibn Amr ibn Ata narrated that he was sitting with a group of the Prophet’s Companions discussing the prayer of the Messenger of Allah, when Abu Humayd said: “I am the one among you who best remembers the prayer of Allah’s Messenger. I saw him: when he uttered the opening takbir he raised his hands level with his shoulders; when he bowed he placed his hands firmly on his knees and bent his back; when he raised his head he straightened up until every vertebra returned to its place; when he prostrated he set his hands down without spreading the arms wide or tucking them in, and he turned the tips of his toes toward the qibla; when he sat after two rakahs he sat on his left leg and kept the right leg upright; and when he sat in the final rakah he brought the left leg forward, kept the other upright, and sat on his buttocks.” Reported by al-Bukhari 2/245–246, Abu Dawud 1/117, 152, and al-Bayhaqi 2/127–128 through the chain of Muhammad ibn Amr ibn Hahlalah. Abd al-Hamid ibn Jaafar also transmitted it from Muhammad ibn Amr ibn Ata, but his version omits the description of the first tashahhud sitting; that wording has already been cited under “Bowing” (p. 605). The hadith shows that the sunnah for the middle tashahhud is to sit in the iftirash manner; this is the position of Abu Hanifah, al-Shafii, and Ahmad. Malik, however, holds that tawarruk is required in every sitting—as will be discussed—and this hadith, as well as the one that follows, refutes his view.