and some went so far as to claim consensus that it is not obligatory. This cannot stand, for Abd al-Razzaq transmits with a sound chain from Tawus evidence that he considered this istiʿadhah compulsory: he once asked his son, “Did you say it after the tashahhud?” When the son answered, “No,” he ordered him to repeat the prayer. I add: Muslim records this report in his Sahih (2/94) as a balagh from Tawus. Al-Hafiz then remarks: “Ibn Hazm went to extremes, making it obligatory even in the first tashahhud. Ibn al-Mundhir said: Were it not for the hadith of Ibn Masud, ‘then let him choose whatever supplication he wishes,’ I would have deemed it obligatory.” I say: that licence to choose does not include the istiʿadhah from these four matters, because the permission is expressly restricted to what comes after one has finished them, as shown earlier. The correct ruling, therefore, is that it is obligatory. Allah knows best. (1) Hadith of Abu Hurayrah. Reported by Muslim (2/93); Abu Awana (2/235); Ibn Majah (1/294); Ahmad (2/237)—and through Ahmad by Abu Dawud (1/155)—all through al-Walid b. Muslim, from al-Awzaʿi, from Hassan b. Atiyyah, from Muhammad b. Abi ʿAishah, who heard Abu Hurayrah relate it. Also in al-Darimi (1/310) and, via other routes from al-Awzaʿi, in Muslim without the first additional phrase. Muslim, al-Bayhaqi (2/154) and Ahmad (2/477) transmit it through Wakiʿ with the second and third additions, while al-Nasaʾi (1/193) and Ibn al-Jarud in al-Muntaqa (207) record it through ʿIsa b. Yunus from al-Awzaʿi with the final addition; Muslim likewise has it on this chain, though without