The Imam’s Forgetting to Recite Aloud and How to Alert Him

Question:
If the imam forgets to recite al-Fatihah aloud, should he be alerted to this? What is the method of alerting him? And if he becomes aware, does he start from where he reached, or does he begin again with the recitation aloud?

Answer:
Yes, the night prayer is recited aloud, and the daytime prayer is recited silently, except for the Friday prayer, the two festival prayers, the prayer for rain, and the eclipse prayer, if it is an eclipse of the sun. These are the prayers recited aloud during the day. So if the imam does not recite aloud, the ma’mum alerts him to recite aloud. If the ma’mum recites aloud, the imam becomes aware, so he continues and does not return to the beginning of what he had recited. Rather, he continues and recites aloud from where he stopped. For example, if he becomes aware in the middle of al-Fatihah, after he has recited "Iyyaka na'budu wa iyyaka nasta'in," he says and recites aloud "Ihdina al-sirat al-mustaqim" and "wa iyyaka nasta'in," and he does not start over from the beginning, because a pillar is not repeated.