it has supporting evidence from the ḥadīth of Anas ibn Mālik, which strengthens it. It is narrated by ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd ibn Maḥmūd, who said: "I prayed with Anas ibn Mālik on a Friday, and we moved towards the columns, so we advanced and retreated. Anas said: We used to avoid this during the time of the Messenger of Allāh (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam)." It was recorded by Abū Dāwūd, al-Nasāʾī, al-Tirmidhī, Ibn Ḥibbān, al-Ḥākim, and others with an authentic chain of transmission, as I clarified in "Ṣaḥīḥ Abī Dāwūd" (677). I say: This ḥadīth is an explicit text on avoiding forming rows between the columns, and that one must either advance or retreat. Ibn al-Qāsim narrated in "al-Mudawwanah" (1/106) and al-Bayhaqī (3/104) through the route of Abū Isḥāq from Maʿdī Karib from Ibn Masʿūd that he said: "Do not form rows between the columns." Al-Bayhaqī said: "And this—Allāh knows best—is because the column interrupts them from completing the row." Mālik said: "There is no harm in forming rows between the columns if the mosque is crowded." In "al-Mughnī" by Ibn Qudāmah (2/220): "It is not disliked for the imam to stand between the columns, but it is disliked for the followers, because they interrupt their rows. Ibn Masʿūd and al-Nakhaʿī disliked it, and it is narrated from Ḥudhayfah and Ibn ʿAbbās. Ibn Sīrīn, Mālik, the people of opinion, and Ibn al-Mundhir permitted it, because there is no evidence for prohibition. We have what is narrated from Muʿāwiyah ibn Qurrah..., and because they interrupt the row, if the row is small, as much as between the two columns, it is not disliked as it does not interrupt it."