The prayer behind an imam who makes errors in reciting al-Fatihah
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
The Shaykh’s role, so he thought that if we recited, he would answer with a fixed ruling, but that he should not exercise independent legal reasoning in it, but rather convey the meaning, so that one should repeat the prayer,
Answer:
Yes, if you pray behind someone who makes an error that changes the meaning, and you are proficient in reciting al-Fatihah, it is obligatory for you to repeat the prayer. But if his error does not change the meaning, the prayer is valid. What changes the meaning is, for example, if he recites “al-‘alamin” with a kasrah on the lam, this changes the meaning. Or if he says “an‘amta ‘alayhim” instead of “an‘amta ‘alayhim,” this changes the meaning. But if he says “al-hamdu lillahi Rabb al-‘alamin” with Rabb in the accusative case, or “al-hamdu lillahi” with the name of Allah in the nominative case, this does not change the meaning. This is an error, but it does not change the meaning or alter the meaning; it only changes the grammatical case.
The Shaykh’s role, so he thought that if we recited, he would answer with a fixed ruling, but that he should not exercise independent legal reasoning in it, but rather convey the meaning, so that one should repeat the prayer,
Answer:
Yes, if you pray behind someone who makes an error that changes the meaning, and you are proficient in reciting al-Fatihah, it is obligatory for you to repeat the prayer. But if his error does not change the meaning, the prayer is valid. What changes the meaning is, for example, if he recites “al-‘alamin” with a kasrah on the lam, this changes the meaning. Or if he says “an‘amta ‘alayhim” instead of “an‘amta ‘alayhim,” this changes the meaning. But if he says “al-hamdu lillahi Rabb al-‘alamin” with Rabb in the accusative case, or “al-hamdu lillahi” with the name of Allah in the nominative case, this does not change the meaning. This is an error, but it does not change the meaning or alter the meaning; it only changes the grammatical case.
Source
شرح بلوغ المرام من أدلة الأحكام [ صالح الفوزان ]، بداية من باب صفة الصلاة — islamhouse.com (1:03:31)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.