Continuation of the discussion on the manner of the Prophet’s (peace and blessings be upon him) prayer, with a note on some errors and a discussion of some recommended practices (sunnah) on which there is disagreement

The Shaykh : ... (Mighty and Majestic) says: , so the imam recites the basmalah quietly, whereas the al-Fatihah must be recited aloud in following the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). The recommended practice (sunnah) in reciting the basmalah and the verses of al-Fatihah is to break them up verse by verse, as it is established from Umm Salama (may Allah be pleased with her) that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), when he recited the Qur'an, would break it up verse by verse. Then he recited: to the end of al-Fatihah. It is necessary to pause at the beginning of the verses, taking a breath to settle in one's recitation, without being agitated or rushing; for rushing in recitation contradicts the command found in the Qur'an, namely His saying (the Exalted): . Then it is recommended (sunnah) after al-Fatihah to conclude it by saying: Ameen; for the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) used to say that after al-Fatihah, and he ordered those behind him to say it when the imam said it. He said (may the prayer and peace be upon him): .
And if the prayer is one of the loud prayers, it is established in the authentic Sunnah from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that he used to say "Ameen" aloud, and this is not established for the followers (ma'mumin). This school of thought (madhhab)—as it appears to me—is the most just of the schools and the closest to the Sunnah; for some schools hold that neither the imam nor the followers say "Ameen" at all, and some hold that the imam says it quietly, and the followers likewise quietly. The school of Imam al-Shafi'i, which his followers today follow, is that both the imam and the followers say "Ameen" aloud. However, the new opinion of Imam al-Shafi'i himself, which he explicitly stated in his book "Al-Umm," is that the imam says "Ameen" aloud, unlike the followers. This is the school indicated by the authentic Sunnah; for it is established that he (peace be upon him) said "Ameen" aloud, and it is not established that the followers behind him said it aloud.
So when he finishes reciting al-Fatihah with the "Ameen," it is recommended (sunnah) for every worshipper to recite after al-Fatihah whatever is easy for him from the Qur'an, and especially what is established from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). This varies according to the different prayers, as is detailed in the major books of jurisprudence (fiqh) and hadith, and particularly in my book "The Description of the Prophet’s (peace and blessings be upon him) Prayer, from the Takbir to the Taslim, as if you were seeing it." So whoever wishes to expand his knowledge should refer to this book or others.
And after the imam finishes reciting the entire Qur'an in the rak'ah, he says Takbir while bowing, raising his hands as he raised them in the first Takbir, the Takbir of Ihram. Raising the hands here is established by mass transmission (mutawatir) from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and likewise when raising the head from the bowing (ruku'). No authentic hadith has come that obligates leaving off the raising in these two instances; therefore I say: the reason for the continued disagreement on the recommended practice (sunnah) of raising in these two instances is nothing but people's stubbornness to their schools of thought. Otherwise, how is it permissible for a Muslim, after knowing that the raising is established in these two places in more than twenty hadiths from more than twenty Companions, all of whom explicitly stated that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) used to raise his hands when bowing and when rising from it? How is it permissible for him to leave off the raising in these two places, for no reason other than that it was reported from Abdullah ibn Mas'ud that he said to his companions: "Shall I not pray for you the prayer of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)?" So he raised his hands at the Takbir of Ihram, and then did not raise them again?
This hadith is the entirety of the argument of those who deny the recommended practice (sunnah) of raising the hands when bowing and when rising from it. And this is one of the wonders of persisting in contradicting the Sunnah; for these deniers are with all the scholars who established that principle of the principles of jurisprudence (usul al-fiqh) which states: the one who affirms is given precedence over the one who denies. If two authentic reports come, one affirming a matter and the other denying it, then the one who affirms is given precedence over the one who denies. Imam al-Bukhari brought a well-known example of this in the biography of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and that is when he performed the Farewell Pilgrimage. The Companions differed on whether the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) prayed inside the Ka'bah or not. So the authentic report came from the narration of Bilal, and from what Abdullah ibn Umar transmitted from him, that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) entered the Ka'bah and prayed between the two pillars. Then another report came from Ibn Abbas that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) did not enter the Ka'bah and did not pray inside it, but rather prayed outside it facing it. So this is the report of Ibn Abbas which denies, and the report of Bilal which affirms. So which of the two reports did the scholars take?
They took the report of Bilal which affirms; for that is because the one who affirms is given precedence over the one who denies in the view of all of them. And that is only because the one who affirms encompassed knowledge that the one who denied did not encompass. For this reason, they agreed on this phrase: "The one who affirms is given precedence over the one who denies." So if we assume that only one individual from the Companions contradicted Ibn Mas'ud; this individual affirmed the raising when bowing and when rising from it, whereas Ibn Mas'ud denied it, it should be said, based on the aforementioned principle: "The one who affirms is given precedence over the one who denies." So how is it, when more than twenty Companions agreed on affirming the raising in this, when bowing and when rising from it, contrary to what Abdullah ibn Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) denied?!
Therefore, it is obligatory for the Muslim to affirm this Sunnah and to act upon it as much as he is able, in order to fulfill the previous command of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): . We have learned from the information of these noble Companions that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) used to raise his hands. So when we pray, we should all raise our hands. And by doing so, we eliminate one of the phenomena of disagreement that is observed among Muslims; some do not raise, and some do raise.
And in the bowing (ruku'), we know that the Sunnah is to settle in the bowing with about three glorifications (tasbih). And the more one increases and prolongs the bowing, the better it is; except if he is an imam, for then he is obligated not to prolong it more than the prolongation of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). But—likewise—he should not lighten the prayer in a way that compromises the settling (itmi'n), which is a pillar of the prayer; for his saying (may the prayer and peace be upon him): . This is an authentic and explicit text negating the prayer of one who does not settle in the bowing and prostration. Negating the prayer means its invalidity. So if he is praying as an imam, he must settle with about two or three glorifications. But if he prays alone, he should prolong as much as he wishes.
But as we said—and we repeat the warning about what we said—one should not lighten the prayer out of consideration for the people, because consideration for the people in lightening has no limits. To this reality, 'Abd Allah ibn 'Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with them both) pointed when he said: or as he said. He used to lead them—now I remember the wording of the hadith—'Umar said: ; it seems he is indicating that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), who used to order lightening, would not have his action contradict his words; therefore, he is indicating that the Prophet's (peace and blessings be upon him) recitation of Surat al-Saffat in the Fajr prayer does not contradict lightening. Therefore, we should not interpret his saying (peace be upon him): ; we should not interpret this hadith as lightening that is not required, not restricted by the Sunnah, the Book, and the Sunnah, otherwise the matter would become chaos. Perhaps a time will come when the followers ask the imam to recite for them only Surat al-Fatihah, and they argue with such hadiths; the argument against them at that time is the Sunnah, ; and so we saw the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) when he rebuked Mu'adh ibn Jabal for lengthening the prayer until that man with the heavy load left the prayer, he ordered him (peace be upon him) to recite after al-Fatihah "The Sun and its Morning Brightness" and similar in the 'Isha' prayer, and he did not order him to restrict himself to only al-Fatihah; knowing that restricting to it suffices in the prayer because it is the pillar, while the recitation after it is a recommended practice.
So the summary is: after the imam recites what is easy for him from the Qur'an, he says takbir raising his hands, then he glorifies Allah at least three times to ensure tranquility, so he does not lighten more than that out of consideration for the followers behind him, then he raises his hands—also—saying takbir, he raises his hands saying takbir as we mentioned, and continues the prayer in the manner mentioned in the detailed books -- ... -- so this hadith that Wail ibn Hujr narrates to us, we take from it two things: one by the explicit wording of the hadith, and the other by its implication and content. As for its explicit wording, it is that the Messenger (peace be upon him) said "Ameen" aloud; so this is the recommended practice that the imam says "Ameen" aloud.
And as for what is understood from the implication of the hadith, it is that the followers do not say "Ameen" aloud; because if the Companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) had been saying it aloud with the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) when he said it aloud, Wail would not have restricted himself to informing us only of the Prophet's (peace and blessings be upon him) saying it aloud, but he would have said: "He and his Companions said it aloud," as came in the hadith of Abu Hurayrah in "Sunan Ibn Majah" that he said: "The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) used to raise his voice with 'Ameen' when he said it, and those behind him raised their voices with it; until the mosque would echo." If this hadith that Ibn Majah narrated from Abu Hurayrah has a weak chain and does not constitute a proof, if Wail ibn Hujr had also heard the Companions of the Prophet raising their voices with "Ameen" as he heard that from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), then what is required by good opinion of him, first in terms of transmission, and second in terms of his good memorization... is that the followers say "Ameen" like the imam; based on the generality of his saying (peace be upon him): . Some of the brothers and teachers here mentioned that since there is a general text: , and since we have established that the Messenger (peace be upon him) used to say "Ameen" aloud; then we, in the state of following him, must say "Ameen" aloud. The answer was that the followers saying "Ameen" aloud was not practiced by the Companions who used to pray behind the Prophet; as evidenced by the fact that Wail ibn Hujr only narrated to us: The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said "Ameen" aloud, and he did not narrate to us that his followers behind him said "Ameen" aloud; so it indicates that there is a difference between the imam, who says "Ameen" aloud, and the followers, who do not say "Ameen" aloud.
Other than that?