Prayer is the foundation of faith, and the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) has explained how to pray in word and deed. The Sahabah were keen to follow his teachings in prayer, and transmitted that to those who came after them. In this hadith, there is a description of one of the characteristics of the Prophet’s prayer, namely his recitation in different prayers. Abu Qatadah al-Ansari (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates that the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) used to recite in each of the first two rak‘ahs of Zuhr prayer the Opening of the Book [al-Fatihah] and another surah with it, and he used to make the recitation in the first rak‘ah longer, and make it shorter in the second. Sometimes those who were behind him could hear his recitation, so they would know what he (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) was reciting, even though it is a prayer in which recitation is done quietly, because he would make them hear a verse sometimes. Thus they knew what he was reciting. Sometimes they (may Allah be pleased with them) could recognize that the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) was reciting from the movement of his beard, as is mentioned in a report narrated by al-Bukhari from Khabbab ibn al-Aratt (may Allah be pleased with him). The Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) would do the same in ‘Asr and Fajr; in the first two rak‘ahs he would recite the Opening of the Book [al-Fatihah] and another surah with it, and he would make the recitation in the first rak‘ah longer, and shorter in the second, because one’s energy is greater in the first rak‘ah, so it is appropriate to make the second rak‘ah shorter, so as to avoid making people feel tired. With regard to the amount that the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) recited in each prayer, in Fajr and Zuhr prayer he would recite the long surahs of al-Mufassal, and his recitation would be longer in Fajr than in Zuhr. In ‘Isha’ and ‘Asr he would recite the medium-length surahs of al-Mufassal, and in Maghrib he would recite the short surahs. Al-Mufassal is a group of surahs in the Qur’an ending with Surat al-Nas; there is a difference of opinion as to where it begins. It was said that it begins from Surat al-Hujurat, until the end of the Qur’an; or that it begins from al-Jathiyah, or from Muhammad, or from Qaf, or from al-Fath, or from al-Saffat, or from al-Saff, and there are other views. It is called Mufassal because there are many breaks (fasl) between the surahs, each of which is marked by the Basmalah. And it was said that this is because its surahs have fewer verses, or fewer abrogated verses, and there are other views. This hadith proves that the first rak‘ah of every prayer should be longer than the second..