Reconciling the statement of Allah the Exalted: “And when the Qur'an is recited, listen to it and pay attention” with the hadith: “There is no prayer for one who does not recite the Mother of the Book.”

The Shaykh : We have the noble verse: which is a general text, and it is opposed by the other general text: Here, two general texts are in conflict. Which of the two general texts takes precedence over the other: the general Qur'anic text or the general hadith text? In our view, there is no difference between the Qur'an and the hadith regarding the obligation to act upon both. The philosophy mentioned earlier is not considered by the majority of scholars; in fact, even those who established that rule contradicted it in many other matters that branched out from their disagreement with applying this rule. In our view, there is no difference between the verse and the hadith regarding the obligation to act upon both. However, here two general texts are in conflict: which one specifies the other? This is where the precision of the matter lies. If we look at the schools of jurisprudence, we find that the Hanafis specified the hadith by the Qur'an, as did some who do not consider recitation obligatory in the loud prayers. Others reversed this and said: We specify the Qur'an by the hadith, and the result is completely different. One who specifies the Qur'an by the hadith means the following: “Listen to it” except in the recitation of al-Fatihah behind the imam. One who reverses this says: “There is no prayer for one who does not recite al-Fatihah” except for one who is listening to the imam reciting al-Fatihah, in which case he must remain silent and quiet. Each person turns to his own direction, so race toward the good deeds. The issue is the careful examination to determine which of the two schools is stronger, and what we have seen in the aforementioned rules.