in "Sharḥ Maʿānī al-Āthār" (1/153), and al-Sarrāj in "Musnad" (Q 5 2/1), and al-Bayhaqī (2/101-102) with a chain containing an unknown narrator, which I clarified in "Ḍaʿīf Abī Dāwūd" (118), and Ibn Ḥibbān considered it preserved. Secondly: Khufāf ibn Īmāʾ said: "When the Messenger of Allāh (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) would sit in the final part of his prayer, he would point with his index finger, and the polytheists would say: He is enchanting with it; but they lied, for it is the declaration of tawḥīd." Narrated by Aḥmad (4/57), and al-Ṭabarānī in "al-Muʿjam al-Kabīr" (4/257/4176) - and the context is his - and al-Bayhaqī (2/133) with a chain whose men are trustworthy; but some inserted a man between the Successor of the ḥadīth and Khufāf who was not named. Thirdly: Wāʾil ibn Ḥujr, in his ḥadīth describing the tashahhud of the Prophet (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam), said: "Then he raised his finger, and I saw him moving it, supplicating with it." Narrated by some of the authors of the "Sunan" and others, authenticated by Ibn Khuzaymah, Ibn Ḥibbān, Ibn al-Jārūd, Ibn al-Mulaqqin, al-Nawawī, Ibn al-Qayyim, and Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, and it is referenced in "al-Irwāʾ" (2/68-69), and "Ṣaḥīḥ Abī Dāwūd" (717), and it is a strong witness for the ḥadīth of the chapter; for his statement in it: "pointing" means, according to Wāʾil: "moving it," as will be explained shortly, if Allāh wills. Some of the later scholars deviated from these imams who authenticated the ḥadīth - and others who accepted the ḥadīth and acted upon it or interpreted it, as I explained in "Tamām al-Minnah" (p. 218) - and they weakened it by claiming that Zāʾidah ibn Qudāmah was the only one to narrate from ʿĀṣim ibn Kulayb... by saying: "moving it" without the rest of ʿĀṣim's companions, and I have responded to these later scholars in