They replied, “Indeed, we bear witness that whoever obeys you has obeyed Allah.” He continued: “Part of obedience to Allah is that you obey me, and part of obedience to me is that you obey your leaders. So if they perform the prayer sitting, then all of you must pray sitting.” This chain of transmission is also sound. Al-Tirmidhi—after citing the Anas report mentioned earlier—said: “Some of the Prophet’s Companions acted on this hadith; among them Jabir ibn Abd Allah, Usayd ibn Hudayr, Abu Hurayra, and others. Ahmad and Ishaq follow this hadith as well.” Al-Hafiz (2/140) adds: “A number of Shafi‘i hadith scholars sided with Ahmad, such as Ibn Khuzayma, Ibn al-Mundhir, and Ibn Hibban.” Al-Zayla‘i quotes Ibn Hibban’s words in Nasb al-Raya (2/49); his text reads: “In his Sahih Ibn Hibban states: ‘This report clearly shows that if the imam prays seated, the congregants must likewise pray seated. Those Companions who gave this ruling include Jabir ibn Abd Allah, Abu Hurayra, Usayd ibn Hudayr, and Qays ibn Qahd (qaf with fatha, ha with sukun). No connected or broken chain reports any dissent from the rest of the Companions; thus it is a consensus—and by consensus we mean the consensus of the Companions. Among the Successors, Jabir ibn Zayd issued the same fatwa, and no contrary view with either a sound or weak isnad has reached us; therefore this, too, constitutes a consensus among the Successors. The first to reject this in the umma was al-Mughira ibn Miqsam; Hammad ibn Abi Sulayman took it from him, Abu Hanifa from Hammad, and his students from Abu Hanifa. The strongest hadith they cite as evidence is one narrated by Jabir al-Juʿfi from al-Shaʿbi, who said…’”