and it was already cited under “(Grasping the hands) while (standing)” (p. 209). Al-Bayhaqi (2/131) records it through Khalid b. ʿAbd Allah—ʿAsim b. Kulayb—from his father, from Waʾil with the wording: “Then he folded the little and ring fingers, formed a circle with the middle finger and the thumb, and pointed with the index finger.” Another wording states: “He folded his fingers, made a circle with the thumb and the middle finger, and then supplicated with the other hand.” Saʿid b. Mansur transmits it in his Sunan, as does Abu Yaʿla (see al-Qari’s treatise, pp. 7, 10). ʿAbd al-Razzaq relates it with the phrasing: “He placed the thumb on the middle finger and formed a circle with them.” Our Hanafi scholars prefer this form while allowing the first as well, the opposite of the Shafiʿis, as mentioned earlier. After citing the report, al-Bayhaqi comments: “We permit it, yet we give preference to what we narrated from Ibn ʿUmar, then what we narrated from Ibn al-Zubayr, because their reports are firmly established, their isnads stronger, and their transmitters superior in virtue to ʿAsim b. Kulayb.” In truth, neither form is superior; both are sunnah, and one should practise each of them at times. The commentator on Munyat al-Musalli alluded to this, mentioning both descriptions without favouring either, and Shaykh ʿAli al-Qari likewise stated: “This shows that one may choose between the two types of pointing established from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and this is a sound position.”