(The main purpose of appointing an imam is to follow him)

Anas said God’s Messenger was thrown off a horse he was riding and his right side was grazed. He then prayed one of the prayers sitting and we prayed behind him sitting, and when he finished he said, "The imam is appointed only to be followed; so when he prays standing pray standing, when he bows bow, when he raises himself raise yourselves, when he says ‘God listens to him who praises Him say, ‘Our Lord, to Thee be the praise’, and when he prays sitting all of you pray sitting." Al-Humaidi said that "when he prays sitting pray sitting" was said during his earlier illness.* After that the Prophet prayed sitting while the people behind him were standing, but he did not order them to sit, and it is only the last action of the Prophet that is to be acted upon. * The reference is to his illness at the time when he swore not to go near his wives for a month. This is Bukhari’s wording, and Muslim has the same up to “all of you”. In a version he added, “Do not act differently from him, and prostrate yourselves when he prostrates himself.”