and these reports indicate something other than what the ḥadīth indicates. It is that whoever catches the bowing with the imam has caught the rakʿah, and this has been established from the statements of Ibn Masʿūd and Ibn ʿUmar with two authentic chains from them. I have referenced them in "Irwāʾ al-Ghalīl" (no. 119), and there is a good elevated ḥadīth from Abū Hurayrah that I have referenced there. As for what al-Bukhārī narrated in "Juzʾ al-Qirāʾah" (p. 24) from Maʿqil ibn Mālik who said: Abū ʿAwānah narrated to us from Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Aʿraj from Abū Hurayrah who said: "If you catch the people bowing, do not count that rakʿah." It is, despite contradicting those reports, weak in its chain because of Maʿqil, as no one authenticated him except Ibn Ḥibbān. Al-Azdī said: He is abandoned. Furthermore, it contains the ʿanʿanah of Ibn Isḥāq, who is a known mudallis. Therefore, the silence of the ḥāfiẓ on it in "al-Talkhīṣ" (127) is not good. Yes, al-Bukhārī narrated it through another route from Ibn Isḥāq who said: al-Aʿraj narrated it to me, but with the wording: "It does not suffice you unless you catch the imam standing." This is a good chain, and it does not contradict the previous reports but rather agrees with them in appearance, except that it stipulates catching the imam standing. This is from Abū Hurayrah, and we do not see a basis for it. Those who disagreed with him are more knowledgeable and more numerous, and may Allāh be pleased with them all. If it is said: There is another authentic ḥadīth that apparently contradicts this ḥadīth, which is: "May Allāh increase your eagerness, but do not repeat."