As for the isti'adhah, if we say it is specific to the first rak'ah, he does not seek refuge; because what the follower catches with the Imam is the end of his prayer, so when he stands to make up [the missed rak'ahs], he recites the opening supplication and seeks refuge with Allah. Ahmad explicitly stated this (7). If we say he seeks refuge in every rak'ah, he does seek refuge; because the isti'adhah is at the beginning of the recitation of every rak'ah, so when the follower intends to recite, he seeks refuge, due to the saying of Allah the Exalted: "So when you recite the Qur'an, seek refuge with Allah from Satan, the accursed."

172 - Issue: He said: (When he sits in it (1) for the tashahhud, it is like his sitting between the two prostrations.)

The general principle is that when he prays two rak'ahs, he sits for the tashahhud, and this sitting and the tashahhud within it are prescribed without disagreement. The later generations have transmitted it from the early generations, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), as a mutawatir (consecutively transmitted) report, and the Ummah performs it in its prayer. If the prayer is Maghrib or a four-rak'ah prayer, they are both obligatory in it, according to one of the two narrations. This is the school of al-Layth and Ishaq. The other narration is that they are not obligatory. This is the view of Abu Hanifah, Malik, and al-Shafi'i; because they both lapse due to forgetfulness (sujud al-sahw), so they resemble the Sunan (voluntary acts). As for us, the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) performed it, persisted in doing so, and commanded it in the hadith of Ibn 'Abbas, saying: "Say: The greetings (al-tahiyyat) are for Allah (2)." And he performed prostrations for forgetfulness when he forgot it (3). He also said: "Pray as you have seen me praying (4)." It only lapses due to forgetfulness in favor of a substitute, so it resembles the expiations (jibranat) (5) of Hajj which are compensated by a sacrifice, unlike the Sunan. Also, because it is one of the two tashahhud acts, it is obligatory just like the other.