those praying behind him must also sit, even if they are physically able to stand. The proof is that the Prophet ﷺ counted following the imam in such a case as part of the obedience to leaders that the Qur’an makes obligatory, for he ﷺ said: “Whoever obeys me has obeyed Allah, and whoever disobeys me has disobeyed Allah. Whoever obeys the amir has obeyed me, and whoever disobeys the amir has disobeyed me. The imam is but a shield; if he prays sitting, then pray sitting. When he says: sami allahu liman hamidah, say: ‘Allahumma rabbana wa-laka l-hamd.’ If the words of the people on earth coincide with the words of the dwellers of heaven, he will be forgiven all his past sins.” It is narrated by al-Tayalisi (no. 336), and through his chain by al-Tahawi (1/235), Abu Awana (2/109), and Ahmad (2/386-387, 416, 467)—the wording cited is Ahmad’s—via several routes from Ya‘la b. Ata, who said: “I heard Abu Alqama say: I heard Abu Hurayra say: I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say…,” and so on. The isnad is authentic according to Muslim’s criterion. Abu Alqama—the Egyptian freedman of Banu Hashim—is known only by his kunyah, but he is reliable, as stated in Taqrib. There is supporting evidence from the hadith of Ibn Umar: reported by al-Tahawi, Ahmad (2/93), al-Tabarani in al-Kabir, and Abu Ya‘la; the first three are also reproduced by al-Maqdisi in al-Mukhtara, while Abu Hatim al-Busti cites the Abu Ya‘la version alone. All run through various chains from Uqbah b. Abi al-Sahba, who said: “I heard Salim say that Ibn Umar told me: One day he was with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ in the company of some Companions, and the Prophet said to them, ‘Do you not know that I am the Messenger of Allah to you?’ They replied, ‘Indeed, we bear witness that you are the Messenger of Allah.’ He then said, ‘And do you not know that Allah has revealed in His Book that whoever obeys me has obeyed Allah?’” (*) In the original manuscript the phrase read “by his name,” but the reading adopted here is the correct one.