What is the ruling on the imam saying when he exits the prayer: "Complete your prayer"?

The Shaykh : Exiting the prayer does not occur except through speech, as stated in the authentic hadith: . We do not find in the Sunnah or in the Salafi reports that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) or 'Umar ibn al-Khattab, regarding whom it is authentic that when he led the people of Makkah and prayed with them in shortened form, he said to them: "Complete your prayer, for we are a traveling people." We do not find in this authentic language that the narrator mentioned that he said: "Peace be upon you and Allah's mercy, complete your prayer, for we are a traveling people." Therefore... the correct view is that the imam says the taslim in a way that he hears himself, and thereby he exits the prayer, as the aforementioned hadith specifies. He then raises his voice with what is established from 'Umar ibn al-Khattab and narrated from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that he said: . So this phrase, after the salam, in a lowered voice, is a reminder to those people not to join the imam and exit the prayer with his taslim; because they are residents. This is what I see. As for saying "Complete your prayer" and meaning that in place of "Peace be upon you," that is what I believe no one would commit such a grave error. The salam is necessary. But between the salam being loud, which is the original rule for the imam, and it being quiet, as I see in such a situation, perhaps the matter has become clear to you?

The questioner : This is from 'Umar ibn al-Khattab, O Shaykh?

The Shaykh : Yes?

The questioner : This is reported from 'Umar ibn al-Khattab.

The Shaykh : And what is it?

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : "Complete"?

The questioner : No, in a lowered voice.

The Shaykh : No, no. I say that when the narrator mentioned what was from 'Umar, he did not mention that he said: "Peace be upon you and Allah's mercy, complete your prayer, for we are a traveling people." He only mentioned this phrase. So I understand from this that he said the salam quietly, and the salam is necessary, as I mentioned earlier.

The questioner : Of course, who makes him their imam? And how can he support them with this statement?
...

The Shaykh : This... he separates himself if he says "Peace be upon you"; he separates himself? All that is the case—may Allah bless you—is that he did not make them hear it, rather he did not make them hear it to prevent the harm that we... I have experienced many incidents in this matter due to the ignorance and negligence of people. Among them is that I said to them loudly at first: "Peace be upon you and Allah's mercy," and many said the salam with me. More than that, in some of my travels to the Kingdom for Hajj and 'Umrah, I stayed in Tabuk, and I prayed the 'Isha' prayer with them after they presented me. I apologized for fear that I would not say the salam at the end of the two rak'ahs, which is something the majority are not accustomed to. And the one who nominated me for the imamate said: "Okay... give them a word and remind them with it." So I actually did, and I found myself giving a lecture, mentioning the Sunnah regarding the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that when he traveled, he prayed in shortened form, and it is not authentic from him (peace and blessings be upon him) that he completed the prayer, contrary to the hadith of al-Daraqutni narrated from 'A'ishah, and so on. Therefore, the people—pay attention—following the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), I will pray with you only two rak'ahs, and I will not make you hear my salam for fear that you will exit the prayer with me. Rather, I will say the salam in a lowered voice and make you hear my saying: "And complete your prayer, for we are a traveling people." And after all this, I prayed two rak'ahs. So the people actually said the salam with me, they exited the prayer, and the commotion and disturbance began. Many of them stood up objecting to the one who nominated me: "O Shaykh, why did you present this man to disturb our prayer..." After all this warning, it did not benefit. Therefore, I see that the imam should consider the conditions of the people and not be a cause for ruining their prayer. If the prayer is valid now, I do not think that a scholar in ordinary prayer, if the imam said: * and the people said the salam; would their prayer not be valid? Without doubt, their prayer is valid, but he contradicted the Sunnah because he is the imam, and the Sunnah is that his speech is heard.

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : Yes?

The questioner : He does not turn around.

The Shaykh : No, what?

The questioner : He does not turn around.

The Shaykh : He turns around... but here in this specific, particular issue, it should be considered the conditions of these poor people who do not attend knowledge, and even if they attend, they may not understand, and similar unfortunate matters. So if the imam says quietly: "Peace be upon you and Allah's mercy, complete your prayer, for we are a traveling people," the interest of the circumstance in reality requires that of us; with the observation of something I said earlier: We did not find in the Sunnah or in the report from 'Umar—I said in the Sunnah—because the hadith reported in that is not authentic to be used as evidence, because it contains the man known for his poor memorization, 'Ali ibn Zayd ibn Jad'an. And this is in the prayer of the Messenger (peace be upon him) in Tabuk. It was said that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Complete your prayer, for we are a traveling people"... But the action of 'Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him), and that is established from him with an authentic chain, and in Makkah, in the presence of a large gathering of the Companions, confirms that this has a basis in the Sunnah. And in such a case, we say: This weak hadith is strengthened by this authentic report. So we did not find, neither in the hadith nor in the report, that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) or 'Umar raised their voice as usual: "Peace be upon you and Allah's mercy." So I explained that by what I witnessed practically, so that the people do not rush and say the salam with him while they are residents. This is what we see, and Allah knows best.

The questioner : Regarding it.

The Shaykh : Am I saying with complete frankness that it is possible, but bring the evidence.

The questioner : The evidence—may Allah preserve you—is that there are general texts in which we still move within their orbit, unless a text comes that takes us out of this generality. So the generality of the texts is that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), when he said the salam, would say it in a way that he made the Companions hear it. And the imam who leads there, among them are travelers and among them are residents—also—he has behind him the travelers. So these travelers must be made to hear by the imam, otherwise how would they know that he said the salam?

The Shaykh : Your current statement: "How would they know" is based on a premise; is that not so?

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : So if the premise is valid, your question is valid, otherwise not; is that so?

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : ... it was mentioned before. In my belief, it falls under the category of unrestricted public interest (maslahah mursalah). So if we accept the generality that you mentioned, which is not actually accepted; because there is no general text with us that says: The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) used to raise his voice in the salam in all prayers. Rather, this generality we establish by collecting a group of texts. This group may give us this result, but this result with this generality and comprehensiveness is not accepted. And assuming its acceptance, the matter falls into the chapter of unrestricted public interest (maslahah mursalah). And I know that this chapter has been a subject of disagreement among scholars; some accept it and some leave it. So ifThe questioner : he shares with us the statement regarding unrestricted public interest (maslahah mursalah) and the detail mentioned by Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him) in his noble book "Iqtida' al-Sirat al-Mustaqim Mukhalafat Ahl al-Jahim"; then
May Allah have mercy on you.
At that point, we meet on a common word: that this contradicts the generalities that are claimed, but the public interest requires not justifying or transmitting the acceptance in order to prevent exposing the prayer of the resident followers to corruption. I have seen from Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him) a statement in this area that every student of knowledge should know, so that he does not fall into excess or deficiency. Whoever does not know this principle, as interpreted and clarified by Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him), falls into exaggeration in denying everything that happened after the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), relying on the general evidence that condemns every religious innovation, until he says of every matter that occurred that it is a religious innovation, because the Messenger (peace be upon him) said: and so on. And this thing, whatever it is, is newly invented; so we reject it. He denies this principle, which is a very important principle, in the detail I will mention quoting from Ibn Taymiyyah. He says: The newly invented matters after the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) are either in religion or in worldly affairs. If they are in worldly affairs, the matter is broad as long as it does not contradict a legal text. And he (peace and blessings be upon him) said in the hadith of pollinating the palm trees: . But if this established matter has a connection to religion and some of the legal rulings, such as the obligatory or the recommended, then it is examined—and here his detail is precise. If this matter that occurred did not have a text from him (peace and blessings be upon him) indicating the legality of its performance, then it is looked at as follows. But if there is a text regarding the permissibility of its performance, then even if it occurred later, it is not a new invention in religion in any way. He mentions, on this occasion, the prayer of Abu ibn Ka'b of tarawih in congregation in the Prophet's Mosque by the order of 'Umar. He lengthens the research in this, and I am in need of only a brief and quick indication that 'Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) did not invent the congregational prayer in tarawih, but all he did was revive it. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) established the prayer of standing in tarawih in Ramadan in congregation by his saying and his doing. As for his saying, as in the hadith, it is as in the hadith of Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said—and its meaning is: . In this hadith, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) encourages the one who prayed the 'Isha' prayer with the imam to stand with him for the prayer of standing; for if he does that, Allah writes for him the reward of standing the whole night. This is legislation, indeed a recommended practice, from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) for the congregational prayer in tarawih. As for his doing, it is known to you that he prayed those three nights and then did not come out until pebbles were thrown at his door. So he (peace and blessings be upon him) came out angry. He said to them: .
Here we see that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) established the prayer of standing in Ramadan in congregation, but for an opposing reason, he explicitly stated in this same hadith , and left this congregation. So Abu ibn Ka'b prayed it by the order of 'Umar to revive this recommended practice. So what 'Umar did was not an occurring matter that is not legislated. It is true that it is occurring; that is, after those three nights, the people were not praying the tarawih prayer in congregation behind one imam. So 'Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) revived this recommended practice that had been left for reasons that some scholars say: they (may Allah be pleased with them) were occupied with fighting the people of apostasy and putting an end to the fitnah, until 'Umar came and Allah (Mighty and Majestic) inspired him to revive this recommended practice, so he did. So this is, on one hand, an occurring matter, and on the other hand, an act of worship, because its origin is legislated, as we mentioned by his (peace and blessings be upon him) doing and his saying. On this basis, the saying of 'Umar (may Allah be pleased with him), "What a good religious innovation this is," is understood as a linguistic innovation, not a legal religious innovation; because the legal religious innovation is condemned absolutely: . And it was called an innovation considering what preceded from the beginning of his caliphate first, where he did not revive this recommended practice, and from the caliphate of Abu Bakr, which was a year and a half. Because this recommended practice was not being revived, he revived it, so he called it an innovation; that is, it occurred after it was not in this time that followed the leaving of the Messenger (peace be upon him) of it, until the revival by 'Umar (may Allah be pleased with him).
He says: If there is a text that obligates the legality or permissibility of what was done, even if it is later than the Messenger, then it does not enter the category of new invention in religion. And this is its example. He mentions another example, which is the expulsion of 'Umar ibn al-Khattab of the Jews from Khaybar. This expulsion, in that it is an action, is a matter that occurred after the Messenger and after Abu Bakr. But in that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) had imposed a condition on them and said to them: . So 'Umar ibn al-Khattab adhered to this restriction that the Messenger (peace be upon him) placed. Added to that is his (peace and blessings be upon him) order to the Companions at the end of his life, by his saying: . So he innovated linguistically but did not innovate legally; he innovated in the linguistic sense and did not innovate in the legal sense; because when he innovated linguistically, he applied a Prophetic order. So it is not appropriate to rush to deny a thing because it occurred after it was not, but rather it is obligatory to be deliberate and careful and look at this occurring matter: does it have what indicates its legality or not? And for that reason, we respond to the people of innovation who publicize them and turn away from the established Sunnahs from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) in saying and doing, who argue with such as his (peace and blessings be upon him) saying: . They say: This hadith is evidence that in Islam there is a good religious innovation and a bad religious innovation! The response in this area is very long, but my intention now specifically is to say to them: Suppose that in Islam there is a good religious innovation, what is the evidence that this is good and that is bad? Is it the intellect or the Shari'ah? If the answer is the intellect, then join the Mu'tazilah who say of the rational beautification and disapproval. And if they say the Shari'ah, then we return to the Shari'ah; so what the Lawgiver beautified is good, and what He disapproved is ugly. This religious innovation that they brought, and filled the earth with it, and diverted the people from... which I mentioned earlier, we took the evidence and were not affected by the word that this is newly invented; because not every newly invented in the linguistic sense is newly invented in the legal sense. And this is the example before us; the prayer of standing, the expulsion of the Jews from the Arabian Peninsula. This is not a religious innovation in religion, but it occurred after it was not. But this new invention was with legal evidence.