and he prayed (wa-daʿa) with it—in place of: “and he pointed with the index finger.” Al-Darimi also transmits the narration (no. 308). As for the second additional phrase, it comes through the chain of ʿUbayd Allah from Nafiʿ, parallel to Malik’s wording. Muslim likewise records it, as do Abu ʿAwana (2/225), al-Nasaʾi (1/187), al-Tirmidhi (2/88), and Ibn Majah (1/295), all of them via ʿAbd al-Razzaq, from Maʿmar, from him. Al-Tirmidhi limited himself to the comment, “A hasan (sound) hadith”—a judgment that falls short, for the report is sahih, entirely free of defect. He then added: “Some scholars from among the Companions of the Prophet ﷺ and the Followers preferred pointing during the tashahhud, and this is the view of our companions,” meaning the people of hadith. This is also the position of our three Hanafi authorities. After citing the hadith, Imam Muhammad said, “We follow the practice of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and this is Abu Hanifah’s opinion.” Abu Yusuf affirms the same in his Al-Amali, as reported by Muhammad and quoted in Fath al-Qadir and other works. It is therefore remarkable that many of our Hanafi scholars have opted to omit the pointing gesture in the tashahhud, even though it is authentically established from the Prophet ﷺ and from their own imams. The meticulous scholar Mulla ʿAli al-Qari authored a valuable treatise on the matter, upholding this sunnah and refuting its critics; he entitled it Tazyin al-ʿIbarah li-Tahsin al-Isharah (“Beautifying the Expression to Uphold the Gesture”). Because the issue is important for adherents of the madhhab, we summarize the most significant elements of that treatise. He marshalled the explicit hadiths that mention the gesture, including: • the previously cited reports of Ibn ʿUmar and Ibn al-Zubayr; • the hadith of Waʾil b. Hujr, to be quoted shortly (p. 850); • and the hadiths of Abu Hurayrah, Abu Humayd al-Saʿidi, Numayr al-Khuzaʿi, Khufaf al-Ghifari, Muʿadh b. Jabal, Anas b. Malik, ʿUqbah b. ʿAmir, and ʿAbd al-Rahman b. Abza.