Shareek bin Abu Numair narrates: He heard Sayyiduna Anas bin Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) saying, "I have not performed prayer behind anyone who offered a prayer more concise and more complete than the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). Sometimes the Prophet (peace be upon him) would hear the sound of a child crying behind him, so he would shorten the prayer, fearing that the child's mother might fall into trial."

Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both) narrates: A man from the Ansar came to the service of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). He said: O Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)! There are some words about which I want to ask. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Sit down. Then a man from the tribe of Thaqif came and said: O Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)! There are some words about which I want to know. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: The Ansari has preceded you. The Ansari said: This man is a traveler and the traveler has a right, so you should begin with him. So the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) turned to the Thaqafi man and said: If you wish, I can tell you about the thing you wanted to ask, and if you wish, you may ask me and I will tell you. The man said: O Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)! Tell me about the thing I wanted to ask you. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: You came to ask me about bowing, prostration, prayer, and fasting. He said: Yes! By the One Who sent you with the truth, you have not erred about what was in my mind. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: When you go into bowing, place both your palms on your knees, keep your fingers apart, and remain there until every limb comes to rest in its place. When you go into prostration, firmly place your forehead, do not peck (like a bird), and perform prayer at the beginning and end of the day. He said: O Prophet of Allah! If I pray between these two times, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Then you are among those who pray. Fast on the 13th, 14th, and 15th of every month. Then the Thaqafi man stood up, and the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) turned to the Ansari. He said: If you wish, I can tell you about the thing you came to ask, and if you wish, you may ask me and I will inform you. He said: No, O Prophet of Allah! Tell me about the thing I wanted to ask you. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: You came to ask me about the pilgrim—when he leaves his house, what are his rulings; when he stands in Arafat, what are his rulings; when he throws pebbles at the Jamarat, what are his rulings; when he shaves his head, what are his rulings; and when he finally circumambulates the House (Ka'bah), what are his rulings. The man said: O Prophet of Allah! By the One Who sent you with the truth, you have not erred about what was in my mind. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: The ruling for this person is that when he leaves his house, for every step his mount takes, he is given a good deed or one of his sins is erased. When the pilgrim stands in Arafat, Allah Almighty descends to the lowest heaven and says: Look at My servants with disheveled hair and dust-covered bodies. Bear witness, I have forgiven their sins—even if they are as many as the drops of rain or the grains of sand. When the pilgrim throws pebbles at the Jamarat, no one knows what reward he will receive until the Day of Resurrection when his reward will be given in full. When he shaves his head, for every hair that falls from his head, he will be given light on the Day of Resurrection. And when he performs the final circumambulation of the House, he emerges from his sins as on the day his mother gave birth to him.

Sayyiduna Abu Hurairah (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates: The Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "The worst thief among people is the one who steals from his prayer." They asked: How does he steal from his prayer? The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "He does not perform its bowing (ruku') and its prostration (sujud) completely."

Umar bin Abu Bakr bin Abdur Rahman narrates: Sayyiduna Ammar bin Yasir (may Allah be pleased with him) performed two rak'ahs. He performed them briefly, so Abdur Rahman bin Harith said to him: O Abu Yaqzan, I have seen that you performed a brief prayer. He replied: I completed them before any distractions could come, because I heard the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) say: "A person performs prayer, and his share from the prayer is only a tenth, or a ninth, or an eighth, or a seventh, or a sixth, until it reaches the number one." (Imam Ibn Hibban, may Allah have mercy on him, says:): The chain of this hadith may mislead someone who is not proficient in the science of hadith into thinking that its chain is disconnected and not continuous. However, this is not the case, because Umar bin Abu Bakr narrated this from his grandfather Abdur Rahman bin Harith, from Sayyiduna Ammar bin Yasir (may Allah be pleased with him), as Ubaidullah bin Umar has stated. Umar bin Abu Bakr did not narrate this directly from Sayyiduna Ammar (may Allah be pleased with him).

Sayyiduna Abu Hurairah (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates: The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) came to the mosque. A man entered the mosque. He performed prayer and then came and sat down. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Go back and perform the prayer, for you have not performed the prayer. This happened three times. Then the man said: By the One Who has sent you with the truth, I do not know any better than this. Please teach me. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: When you stand for prayer, say the takbir and recite whatever you know of the Qur’an, then bow until you are at ease in bowing, then rise until you are standing straight, then prostrate until you are at ease in prostration, then rise until you are at ease sitting. Perform your entire prayer in this manner.

(Imam Ibn Hibban, may Allah have mercy on him, says:): The statement of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him):“Recite whatever you know of the Qur’an,”by this he meant the recitation of Surah Al-Fatihah. And the statement of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him):“Go back and perform the prayer, for you have not performed the prayer,”the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) negated the prayer of this man due to his shortcoming in fulfilling what was obligatory upon him. This does not mean that the man did not perform the prayer at all. So, when his action was deficient in terms of perfection, the name (of prayer) was completely negated from him.

Abdur Rahman bin Ali bin Shaiban narrates from his father, who was one of the six members of a delegation. He states: We presented ourselves before the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). We performed prayer behind him. The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) saw, from the corner of his eyes, a person who was not keeping his back straight during bowing (ruku) and prostration (sajda). So the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: The prayer of that person is not valid who does not keep his back straight.

Sayyiduna Abu Mas’ud (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates: The Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) said:“That prayer is not valid in which a person does not keep his back straight during bowing (ruku’) and prostration (sujud).”

Sayyiduna Abu Mas’ud (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates: The Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) said:“The prayer of that person is not valid who does not keep his back straight during bowing (ruku’) and prostration (sujud).”

Zaid bin Wahb narrates: Sayyiduna Hudhaifah (may Allah be pleased with him) saw a man pecking (in prayer) near the gates of "Kindah," so he asked: "How long have you been praying like this?" He replied: "For forty years." So Sayyiduna Hudhaifah (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "If you die in this state, you will die upon something other than the nature upon which Sayyiduna Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) was sent." A person should pray briefly, but perform the bowing (ruku') and prostration (sujud) completely.

Sayyiduna Ali bin Abi Talib (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates: The Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) forbade me from reciting (Qur'an) during bowing (ruku') or prostration (sujud).