The ruling on imitating the imams of the Haram in lengthening the prayer
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
Honorable Shaykh! The questioner says: I am the imam of a mosque, and among my congregation are some elderly people. If I call for prayer and he is present, I shorten it. If I do not see him, I lengthen it by reciting Surat al-Buruj in the first rak'ah and Surat al-Tariq in the second in the 'Isha' prayer, or Surat al-Insan in both rak'ahs. Some of the congregation are bothered by this; the congregation is bothered by this. Is my action in this a form of driving people away, considering that I recite with tartil like the recitation of the imams of the two Harams?
The Shaykh:
Yes, indeed, your action becomes a form of driving people away if you lengthen it or
The questioner:
raise your voice and prolong it, and you want to imitate the imams of the two Harams. Do not make it difficult for them.
The Shaykh:
You should stick to moderation, avoiding excessive lengthening, and recite at a medium pace that is neither hasty and mumbled nor drawn out. Do not imitate anyone. What do you mean by imitating so-and-so? Allah has given you a voice and given you the knowledge to perfect the recitation. The best imitation is imitating the voices in a theatrical way; if you start imitating the voices of so-and-so, that is theatrical. But if you follow him in perfecting the recitation, there is no harm. Follow him in perfecting the recitation and having a good voice; that is good. But if you bring in a voice and intonation like his, that becomes a form of driving people away.
Honorable Shaykh! The questioner says: I am the imam of a mosque, and among my congregation are some elderly people. If I call for prayer and he is present, I shorten it. If I do not see him, I lengthen it by reciting Surat al-Buruj in the first rak'ah and Surat al-Tariq in the second in the 'Isha' prayer, or Surat al-Insan in both rak'ahs. Some of the congregation are bothered by this; the congregation is bothered by this. Is my action in this a form of driving people away, considering that I recite with tartil like the recitation of the imams of the two Harams?
The Shaykh:
Yes, indeed, your action becomes a form of driving people away if you lengthen it or
The questioner:
raise your voice and prolong it, and you want to imitate the imams of the two Harams. Do not make it difficult for them.
The Shaykh:
You should stick to moderation, avoiding excessive lengthening, and recite at a medium pace that is neither hasty and mumbled nor drawn out. Do not imitate anyone. What do you mean by imitating so-and-so? Allah has given you a voice and given you the knowledge to perfect the recitation. The best imitation is imitating the voices in a theatrical way; if you start imitating the voices of so-and-so, that is theatrical. But if you follow him in perfecting the recitation, there is no harm. Follow him in perfecting the recitation and having a good voice; that is good. But if you bring in a voice and intonation like his, that becomes a form of driving people away.
Source
إطالة القراءة في الصلاة للإمام — alfawzan.live
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.