What is the ruling on one who prays alone? Is it permissible for him to recite quietly in the prayers where recitation is loud?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : O Shaykh, regarding the one who recites quietly in the loud prayers while praying alone, what is the ruling up to now?
The Shaykh : I have not said anything yet. First, let me bring the hadith to the point where, if there is a clarification in one of the forms of prayer that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) did it one time and left it off another time, that is clear evidence that the matter is not obligatory, let alone that it is a pillar of the prayer. An example of this is what came in "Sahih al-Muslim" that a man asked Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) about the recitation of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) in the night prayer: did he recite loudly or quietly? Her answer was, "Sometimes he recites loudly and sometimes quietly." This is an explicit text. So, if reciting loudly in the night prayer were certainly obligatory, we would not have received such a clarification regarding the five prayers, which include both loud and quiet recitation. Yes, in matters concerning some of the quiet prayers, such as the midday prayer or the afternoon prayer, it came in "the two Sahihs" from the hadith of Abu Qatadah al-Ansari that he said, "The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him)Sunan an-Nasa'i 977Sahih (Darussalam) meaning that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) intended to recite with a moderate loudness so that those next to him would hear some of the verses to receive and learn from him (peace and blessings be upon him)... Personally, I cannot say that reciting loudly in the loud prayers is obligatory, or that reciting quietly in the quiet prayers is obligatory. Rather, I encourage maintaining the practice: where we recite loudly, we recite loudly, and where we recite quietly, we recite quietly. This is what I was preparing to say, because it is never easy to say that something is a recommended practice simply because the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) did it, or that it is obligatory because it falls under the generality of his saying Sahih al-Bukhari 6008.
Yes
The Shaykh : I have not said anything yet. First, let me bring the hadith to the point where, if there is a clarification in one of the forms of prayer that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) did it one time and left it off another time, that is clear evidence that the matter is not obligatory, let alone that it is a pillar of the prayer. An example of this is what came in "Sahih al-Muslim" that a man asked Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) about the recitation of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) in the night prayer: did he recite loudly or quietly? Her answer was, "Sometimes he recites loudly and sometimes quietly." This is an explicit text. So, if reciting loudly in the night prayer were certainly obligatory, we would not have received such a clarification regarding the five prayers, which include both loud and quiet recitation. Yes, in matters concerning some of the quiet prayers, such as the midday prayer or the afternoon prayer, it came in "the two Sahihs" from the hadith of Abu Qatadah al-Ansari that he said, "The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him)
he would make us hear a verse sometimes
كان يسمعنا الآية أحياناoffer your prayers in the way you saw me offering my prayers
صلوا كما رأيتموني أصليYes
Source
www.al-albany.com
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.