and Salām ibn Sulaym [narrated] with al-Ṭayālisī (1020). Al-Ṭaḥāwī said following the aforementioned narration of Abū al-Aḥwaṣ: "This indicates that it was at the end of the prayer." I said: This is explicit in the narration of Abū ʿAwānah mentioned earlier, for he said: "Then he prostrated, placing his head between his palms, then prayed another unit, then sat and spread his left leg, then supplicated and placed his left palm on his left knee, and his right palm on his right knee, and supplicated with the index finger." Its chain is authentic. A similar narration is from Sufyān (ibn ʿUyaynah), with the wording: "When he sat in the two units, he laid out the left [foot] and raised the right [foot], placing his right hand on his right thigh and raising his finger for supplication, and placed his left hand on his left leg." It was narrated by al-Nasāʾī (1/173) with an authentic chain, and al-Ḥumaydī (885) similarly. I said: It becomes clear from this authentic narration that the movement or pointing with the finger is only in the sitting of the tashahhud, and that the unrestricted sitting in some of them is restricted to the sitting of the tashahhud. This is what is necessitated by the reconciliation between the narrations and the principle of applying the unrestricted to the restricted as established in the science of uṣūl al-fiqh. Therefore, it was not reported from any of the predecessors that pointing was done unrestrictedly in prayer or in every sitting of it, as far as I know. Similarly, it is said regarding the placement of the hands on the chest, that it is only in the standing before bowing, in accordance with the mentioned principle. If someone were to say: ʿAbd al-Razzāq narrated from al-Thawrī from ʿĀṣim ibn Kulaib with his aforementioned chain from Wāʾil... he mentioned the ḥadīth and the spreading in his sitting, he said: "Then he pointed with his index finger and placed the thumb on the middle finger, forming a circle with it and grasping the rest of his fingers, then