in prayer, then the Messenger of Allāh (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) forbade them, and this ḥadīth serves as evidence for that. As for interpreting it as the greeting of someone not praying to someone who is praying, it is incorrect due to the established practice of the Companions greeting the Prophet (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) in more than one ḥadīth, without any objection from him. Rather, he supported them by responding to the greeting with a gesture. Among these is the ḥadīth of Ibn ʿUmar who said: "The Messenger of Allāh (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) went out to Qubāʾ to pray there. The Anṣār came to him and greeted him while he was praying. I asked Bilāl: How did you see the Messenger of Allāh (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) respond to them when they greeted him while he was praying? He said: He would do like this, and he spread his palm. Jaʿfar ibn ʿAwn—one of the narrators of the ḥadīth—spread his palm and placed its underside downwards, with its back upwards." It was narrated by Abū Dāwūd and others, and it is an authentic ḥadīth as I have clarified in my commentary on "Kitāb al-Aḥkām" by ʿAbd al-Ḥaqq al-Ishbīlī (ḥadīth number 1369), and also in "Ṣaḥīḥ Abī Dāwūd" (860). Imām Aḥmad himself used it as evidence and acted upon it. Isḥāq ibn Manṣūr al-Marwazī said in "al-Masāʾil" (p. 22): I said: Do you greet the people while they are praying? He said: Yes, and he mentioned the story of Bilāl when Ibn ʿUmar asked him: How did he respond? He said: He would gesture. Al-Marwazī said: "Isḥāq said as he said."

- "When he (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) became old and gained weight, he set up a pillar in his prayer place to lean on." Narrated by Abū Dāwūd (948): ʿAbd al-Salām ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Wābiṣī narrated to us from his father from Shaybān from Ḥuṣayn ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān from Hilāl ibn Yasāf who said: