I have never prayed behind anyone whose prayer more closely resembles that of the Messenger of Allah (may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him) than so-and-so. We prayed behind him and he would lengthen the first two Rak‘ahs of the Zhuhr and shorten the last two

Explanation

This Hadīth points out that there was an Imām in the Prophet’s mosque whose prayer resembled that of the Messenger (may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him). He would imitate the Messenger in terms of the length of each Rak‘ah. He would lengthen the first two Rak‘as of the Zhuhr prayer and shorten the last two. He would do so in the ‘Asr also. He would recite the short chapters of the Mufassal Sūrahs (from Sūrat Qāf till the end of the Qur’an) in the Maghrib prayer. In the ‘Ishā' prayer, he would recite Sūrat al-Layl and similar-sized Sūrahs. He would lengthen the Fajr prayer.