Discussion of the issue of the followers following their imam in saying: (Ameen) in the prayer.

The Shaykh : ... it contains a great virtue that the majority of worshippers do not pay attention to; therefore, we hardly find any of them striving to apply this hadith; whether in the first meaning, i.e., synchronization, or in the second meaning, which is the most likely in our view for the reasons we mentioned, hardly any of them apply this to obtain the reward of this noble Prophetic command; which is His saying - peace and blessings be upon him - : , and the meaning of this is that Allah - Mighty and Majestic - has favored His worshipping servants by legislating for them means and causes that are easy and within reach, such that if they perform them, they become deserving of the forgiveness of Allah - Blessed and Exalted is He - . The matter does not require anything to obtain this forgiveness except being attentive not to precede the imam in saying: , so either synchronization according to the first opinion, or following according to the second opinion, which is the most likely in our view.
Therefore, we must know that the mention of the Messenger - peace and blessings be upon him and his family - of the angels in this hadith, and his saying: means something clear; namely that the angels, as Allah - Mighty and Majestic - said about them: ; meaning that the angels who attend and witness the prayers with the worshippers in the mosque are not like humans who disobey Allah, let alone that they neglect the rulings of Allah, so it is not conceivable that they would precede the imam, so they are either synchronized with the imam according to the opinion of the first group, or following the imam according to the other opinion, which is the most likely as we said; so we advise, therefore, one of two things, one of which is necessary, preferring the other. The first thing is that the follower does not precede the imam with , but rather synchronizes, and synchronization, if the one capable of it achieves it, will be incomplete; because he cannot synchronize with him for the duration of his saying: in many cases; because he is not prepared to say: as if he were reading the Qur'an himself and then saying Ameen afterwards in a measured manner; therefore, we advise the second thing; which is that you control yourselves; when you hear the Ameen of the imam, do not start saying: "A" from until you hear the silent nun from the imam's saying: , and at that time you will obtain this forgiveness with the least work and the least effort. What is this effort? That you are not distracted behind the imam and surrender to the custom that people are following, that he says: and the whole mosque erupts with its noise with , and then the Ameen of the imam comes.
If you have not noticed this, notice it in the future, and you will find that the matter has been turned upside down. The followers say: , and the Ameen of the imam comes after them!! Notice this, so the worshipper first contradicted the explicit command of the Messenger: , and secondly, and this is more important for this disobedient Muslim who is submerged in sins and transgressions, to seek the causes by which he deserves the forgiveness of Allah, he loses this forgiveness; because he contradicted the command of the Prophet - peace and blessings be upon him - : .
And upon you be peace, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings.
Some of the scholars who are commentators of al-Bukhari have explicit words saying: It is not prescribed to synchronize with the imam in any of the dhikr and recitations except in , and this is a clarification that the original rule in following the imam is following, not synchronization, except in ; so what made this and its like specialize, leading them to specialize Ameen with synchronization with the Ameen of the imam, unlike the dhikr of takbir, tasmi', tahmid, and the like.
= -- And upon you be peace -- =
Look at a hadith - also - which is in "Sahih al-Bukhari" from the hadith of Abu Hurayrah - may Allah be pleased with him - he said: The Messenger of Allah - peace and blessings be upon him - said in a long hadith in which he says: وإذا قرأ الإمام : غَيْرِ الْمَغْضُوبِ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا الضَّالِّينَ فقولوا : آمين And when the Imam recites: “Not those upon whom is Your anger, nor those who go astray,” then say: “Ameen.” ; meaning: he did not mention in this hadith: غَيْرِ الْمَغْضُوبِ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا الضَّالِّينَ فقولوا : آمين Not those upon whom is Your anger, nor those who go astray, then say: “Ameen.” , so some scholars looked at the apparent meaning of this hadith, and they said: Since the Messenger - peace and blessings be upon him - said: وإذا قرأ الإمام : غَيْرِ الْمَغْضُوبِ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا الضَّالِّينَ فقولوا : آمين And when the Imam recites: “Not those upon whom is Your anger, nor those who go astray,” then say: “Ameen.” ; the meaning of that is that should occur immediately after the imam says: .
... I have something in this hadith, some of which relates to the science of hadith and some of which relates to the principles of jurisprudence. As for what relates to the science of hadith, it is this hadith which said: وإذا قرأ الإمام : غَيْرِ الْمَغْضُوبِ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا الضَّالِّينَ فقولوا : آمين And when the Imam recites: “Not those upon whom is Your anger, nor those who go astray,” then say: “Ameen.” did not mention the imam's saying: , but in the previous hadith, the Messenger - peace and blessings be upon him - explicitly mentioned the Ameen of the imam and said: , so from the scientific hadith rules, if two authentic hadiths come and one has an addition over the other, it is obligatory to combine the addition with the one it was added to, and to take their sum, and this is what they express as "the addition of the trustworthy narrator is accepted," and at that time we arrive at the following result in the second hadith: وإذا قرأ الإمام غَيْرِ الْمَغْضُوبِ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا الضَّالِّينَ - وقال : آمين - فقولوا : آمين And when the Imam recites: “Not those upon whom is Your anger, nor those who go astray” – and says: “Ameen” – then say: “Ameen.” , where did we get the imam's saying: from? In the first hadith: , so we combined this addition with the second hadith, and what confirms this for you is that relying on the second hadith, i.e., on its apparent meaning, regardless of the addition of the Ameen explicitly mentioned in the first hadith, the hadith would indicate that the imam does not say: ; why? Because he said: وإذا قرأ : غَيْرِ الْمَغْضُوبِ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا الضَّالِّينَ فقولوا : آمين And when he recites: “Not those upon whom is Your anger, nor those who go astray,” then say: “Ameen.” ; he did not mention the Ameen of the imam. The reality is that Imam Malik argued with this hadith that the imam does not say: ; because if it were prescribed for him to say: , the Messenger - peace and blessings be upon him - would have said: وإذا قرأ الإمام : غَيْرِ الْمَغْضُوبِ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا الضَّالِّينَ - وقال : آمين - فقولوا أنتم : آمين And when the Imam recites: “Not those upon whom is Your anger, nor those who go astray” – and says: “Ameen” – then you say: “Ameen.” , this is Malik's argument for the non-prescription of the Ameen of the imam in his view.
But the majority are of the opinion that it is from the Sunnah for the imam to say Ameen, and indeed it is from the Sunnah for him to say it aloud, as established from the Messenger - peace and blessings be upon him and his family - ; therefore, the second hadith should have the addition of the Ameen mentioned in the first hadith combined with it, so the two hadiths do not differ, and they meet and agree, and at that time the ruling of Ameen, in terms of the follower following the imam in it, becomes like the ruling of all the dhikr mentioned in the prayer, as we detailed that, so the follower in it follows the imam and does not synchronize with him, like takbir and the like.
Then we observe another thing which may serve as a fourth proof for preferring the second opinion; which is considering the wisdom in the Sunnah of the imam raising his voice with , so the wisdom in the imam raising his voice with is for the follower to be able to realize the first hadith: ; because if the imam did not raise his voice with , the follower would not be able to realize this command, the fruit of which is that Allah forgives whoever realizes it, so we must wait for the imam to finish: in its entirety, then we wait until he takes a breath; because although some of the imams of the mosques, unfortunately, due to their ignorance, say: , this is an error; because first is not from al-Fatihah, and secondly, if it were from al-Fatihah, either he would pause or he would continue, so if he continued, he would not say: Ameen, but rather: he would move it, then follow it with his saying: , but here is a verse where one must stop first, especially since al-Fatihah ends with it and al-Fatihah is distinguished from the word of supplication which is .
So my intention is that if some of the imams of the mosques, due to their ignorance or negligence of this reality, say: ; then we must follow the knowing and righteous imams who read the Qur'an verse by verse, and especially from the Qur'an, Surat al-Fatihah, and we find many imams doing this , do not say: you, wait for him to take a breath, for him to say: , so you, therefore = -- And upon you be peace, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings -- = should anticipate hearing the imam say aloud: ; so that your Ameen matches the Ameen of the angels, either according to the opinion of synchronization, or according to the opinion of following, and this is the most likely for the reasons we mentioned from these causes.
This is what I wished to remind you of, and perhaps I have done so more than once in this place. However, we find that in every instance, despite how rarely we come to this place, there are young men who are eager to listen to knowledge and seek it out. We hear from them some errors that contradict the authentic hadiths, such as this error. So we felt it obligatory for us to alert you all, first so that you do not contradict the clear command of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) in his saying: as detailed previously, and second so that you do not deprive yourselves of the forgiveness of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) through this easy, facilitated means.
This is a reminder, and the reminder benefits the believers.