Notes on some of the mistakes made by the followers in their prayer, along with an explanation of the virtue of following the imam in his saying of "Ameen."

The Shaykh : ... the general public. By this hadith, I mean the saying of our Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him): . This is on the same pattern as his saying (peace be upon him) in the first hadith: . On this same pattern came the other hadith: . The meaning of this is obvious: do not precede him in saying "Ameen." Rather, when he says it, you say it with him. The rest of the hadith is very important, because it explains the favor of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) upon His believing servants who follow the commands of the noble Prophet, to the extent that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) forgives this praying person because he fulfilled this noble command. He said (peace be upon him): .
Look at the favor of Allah; He forgives all the sins of this praying person, whether they were small or large, except that Allah forgives his sins. Why? Because he did not precede the imam with , and he said it after, or followed the imam with and did not precede him; so he has this great favor from the noble Lord that Allah forgives his sins. So what is the state of the praying people today? As we heard today and hear every day, with great regret, in every prayer, these followers must precede the imam. The imam, naturally, and we are speaking here about the loud prayer where the imam recites loudly, and the imam who follows the Sunnah says loudly, as for those who hide it, we have no conversation with them at all. So he says: , but we see and observe that the imam has barely finished reading: when the mosque is filled with . He has not even taken a breath yet to rest from reading the blessed, good Surah al-Fatihah. So we must, first, obey the command of the Messenger (peace be upon him) who commands us to follow him and not precede him, as a general negation, and second, he commands us specifically not to precede the imam with so that we may attain the forgiveness of the Lord of the Worlds. So what must we do? We listen to the imam, as our Lord (Mighty and Majestic) said in the Qur'an: . So if we are listening and truly attentive, we must wait when the imam says: . You take a short or long breath, then we hear him begin with . At that time, we begin with and complete it after the imam with: : . If we do that, we are saved, first, from disobeying the noble Prophetic command, and second, we attain the forgiveness of the Great Lord (Exalted is He).
Also, I remind you, and the reminder benefits the believers, that when you are behind an imam who says loudly, do not precede him with , for you are reversing the rule, making yourselves the imam and the imam the follower of you; because he is catching up to you, whereas the supposed situation is the opposite. So be patient, may Allah bless you, and bring your ears and minds to the forefront behind the imam. When you hear ... this is because taking this breath is what will delay you, and prevent you from preceding the imam with , and thereby you are saved from disobeying the Messenger (peace be upon him) in this hadith: , and then you will attain, if Allah wills, the forgiveness of the Lord of the Worlds, all of it; as he said (peace be upon him) in the previous hadith: . Do not, when he says "Ameen," precede him with "Ameen." .
And here we must address the interpretation of ; for the scholars have two opinions on it.

The questioner: No problem, our Shaykh, if we turned toward the north; because the sun is in our eyes.

The Shaykh: I mean, did the heat of the young men appear? What Allah willed!
The scholars, in interpreting his saying (peace be upon him) in this authentic hadith, which is agreed upon by the two Shaykhs; meaning al-Bukhari and Muslim narrated it in their "Sahih"s, they said in interpreting his saying (peace be upon him): , two opinions:
"When he says 'Ameen';" meaning: he finished saying "Ameen." By way of explanatory meaning, you heard the silence of the noon in . When the imam finishes his saying: , then you begin with your saying: .
And the second opinion, which is the one that became stronger for me recently, is that the meaning is: when he began, when the imam began with , then you begin with . And you see, in any case, that we are contradicting both interpretations all the time, especially the first opinion.
The first opinion is a bit longer in duration than ours. We say: if you are patient a little; meaning you heard the imam's saying: - alif - then you say after him: ; because in this case you did not precede him. But the first opinion, when he is done with , hey, it requires more self-control as you see. And I see that this first opinion, if we adopt it initially to cut off the root of this preceding which the masses of praying people have been afflicted with, is more appropriate initially. As for finally, we do not lag behind the imam; merely when we hear him say: , we say after him: and complete exactly as he did.
This, as we said at the beginning of the speech, is from the category of: . And I say as he said (peace be upon him) in many of his sermons: . It is not that I turn away from here and each of you goes to his home and his work and so on, and nothing enters our minds, so we pray in some mosques and hear this contradiction which contains ... contradiction, and we remain in it. This is the first thing.
The second thing is that we do not convey it to the people or warn them of it!! And the Messenger (peace be upon him) used to say: . The point of this hadith is his saying: . The intended meaning of "ayah" here is not the general customary meaning, i.e., any verse from the Qur'an. No; because the original meaning of "ayah" in the Arabic language is a sentence, a complete sentence. So here the Messenger (peace be upon him) in this hadith commands every Muslim to whom an "ayah" has reached - meaning: a sentence from the hadiths of the Messenger (may Allah's prayers and peace be upon him) - to convey it to the people, and thereby the correct knowledge spreads. Because knowledge, as you know, from the saying of Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allah have mercy on him), one of the great scholars of the Salafis who follow the righteous Salaf in creed, jurisprudence, and behavior; Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allah have mercy on him) used to say:
"Knowledge is: Allah said, His Messenger said *** The Companions said, it is not by equivocation
Knowledge is not setting you up for foolishness *** In contradiction between the Messenger and the opinion of a jurist
Nay, nor denial of the attributes and their negation, *** fearing ta'til (denial of the divine attributes) and tashbih (likening Allah to creation).
So knowledge is: Allah said, the Messenger of Allah said, and in the third and final rank, the Companions said; because they are the ones who conveyed to us what Allah said on the tongue of His Prophet, and what he (peace and blessings be upon him) said in his own words from his hadiths. They are the trust, they are the ones who conveyed to us this Shari'ah with its Book and the Sunnah of its Prophet. And therefore, we must focus not on conveying hearsay and gossip, but on "Allah said" and "the Messenger of Allah said," .
So the summary of this speech, its summary is in two concise sentences. The first concerns you, O praying people: do not precede the imam with , so that you do not disobey the noble Messenger in his command: . The second and final sentence is that you convey this hadith to the people behind you and clarify it to them in the manner you heard.
What is this hadith? We repeat it over and over; because it is from his Sunnah (peace and blessings be upon him) that, as it came in "Sahih al-Bukhari," he used to repeat the word three times so that it would be understood from him; meaning: comprehended from him. So the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) says: .
And this is a reminder, and the reminder benefits the believers ... with good. We said that behind all the imams, when he says: , the followers precede him with .

The questioner: This was the lesson today.

The Shaykh : May Allah reward you with good.

The questioner : Praise be to Allah.

The Shaykh: So, a forerunner to good deeds, if Allah wills.

The questioner : May Allah bless you.

The Shaykh : Welcome.