Is it prescribed to prolong the takbir and vary it according to the pillars of the prayer?

onAl-Halabi : For the sake of completeness, since the previous discussion was all about prayer, we would like to clarify something else that we are accustomed to or witness in our lands, which is prolonging the takbir and making the prolongations differ according to the pillars, such as standing, the takbir of ihram, the final or middle tashahhud, or similar. May Allah reward you with good.

The Shaykh : In fact, this is a matter we do not know from the Sunnah. Although it appears in some books of jurisprudence, particularly Shafi'i jurisprudence, and as they say, if I forget, I do not forget an imam in our Damascus who used to pray in the mosque that was my neighbor in the shop. He was zealous for his Shafi'i madhhab and would say, "I do not say the Imam al-Shafi'i, but rather some of his followers, that it is obligatory for the imam to prolong the takbir from one pillar to another." For example, he would want to prostrate after raising his head from ruku', so he would keep saying: Allahu akbar until he placed his head in prostration. This is acceptable to some extent in terms of length, but what completely caught my attention were two things in the Shafi'i madhhab: this matter which we do not know from the Sunnah, and another matter which is from the Sunnah and they are envied for it, which is the sitting of rest. You know, the sitting of rest is that the worshipper does not rise from the second prostration to the second rak'ah in one continuous motion as the Hanafis and others do, but rather he sits as if he had forgotten, as if he wanted to sit for the tashahhud, but this is a light sitting, and then he rises relying on his hands. The Shafi'i madhhab says this, and so the thing that catches the attention is that I saw that imam applying this issue, and he was, praise be to Allah, a giant and a worshipper. He would barely raise his head from the second prostration but he would say: Allahu, and he would sit for the sitting of rest, and he would prolong it until he straightens up standing. Imagine how loud his voice would have to be, what Allah willed, and his lungs were very wide... He would say: Allahu akbar. This has no basis in the Sunnah; rather, the takbir is a concise, decisive utterance. What do we need to do with this kind of speech? It is a long speech. So do not blame us. The salam is also where many imams err in saying "As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullah" incorrectly, before he has finished the salam, while the congregation has finished the salam, the opposite of what you did. Why? Because he is prolonging it, and this is contrary to the Sunnah. The Sunnah is to be quick and say "As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullah" without any need for prolongation, because it will cause the followers to be preceded by the taslim, which is the last pillar of the prayer. So, all the takbirs of the prayer are similar to each other; there is no prolongation or lengthening, whether it is during rising from the second prostration to the second rak'ah or from rising from ruku'. This is the takbir: Allahu akbar, and the matter is done. And that is sufficient here. We need to hear from our brothers what they have.

The questioner : The saying of "Ameen" behind the imam.

The Shaykh : Just, yes?