The Shaykh’s advice and guidance to the worshippers not to precede the imam in saying “Ameen.”

The Shaykh : This is the last of the days of Tashriq, and it will be our last meeting, if Allah wills, between us and you in this blessed season. I ask the Lord, Blessed and Exalted is He, to facilitate our meeting with you and with the like of you among the believing pilgrims who love to follow the Book and the Sunnah and the methodology of our righteous predecessors (may Allah be pleased with them all). Before I receive some of your questions, to the extent that time permits this morning, I want to remind you for the last time and warn you against disobeying the command of your Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) in your prayers. You are racing ahead of the imam in a very clear and obvious matter, which is saying “Ameen” before the imam begins to say “Ameen.” We have reminded you more than once, but we know from experience that reform is very difficult and that people always need to be followed up with reminders and teaching, especially when the matter they are being reminded and taught about has become ingrained in their souls and custom has prevailed over the Sunnah. In this case, it is extremely difficult for a person to revert from his old habit, even if it becomes clear to him that it is a habit contrary to the Prophetic Sunnah. We are returning to remind you, not to reprimand you for not responding to the command of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) I am returning to remind you, not to reprimand you, because of the difficulty I mentioned in returning from the habits people have become accustomed to that are contrary to the Sunnah. However, this is not considered a justification for remaining in opposition to the Prophetic command. I am giving you an example of myself so that you may also treat yourselves as I treated myself. When I began seeking knowledge, I began as all students do in all Islamic countries in the present age, by reading to one of the shaykhs and... I began my study in Hanafi jurisprudence, and in such jurisprudence it is mentioned... that when you stand up for prayer, you should vocalize the intention, saying, “I intend to pray for Allah the Exalted the obligatory Fajr prayer of two rak'ahs, following an imam as a ma'mum,” and so on. Naturally, I accepted this claimed Sunnah and continued with it for a period, if Allah wills, until Allah, Mighty and Majestic, guided me to the fact that vocalizing the intention is a religious innovation (bid'ah), and that the Sunnah is for the Muslim to begin his prayer with “Allahu Akbar,” as came in the hadith of Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) When we learned from this hadith, and from the reminders of some of the scholars of the people of the Sunnah among the previous authors, and especially among them Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyyah in his valuable book *Zad al-Ma'ad fi Hady Khayr al-'Ibad*, and before him his shaykh, the Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, who mentioned in his *Old Fatwas* that vocalizing the intention is a religious innovation (bid'ah), after I knew this truth, I struggled greatly with myself. Several months passed until I was established upon the Sunnah and I was able to begin the prayer by saying “Allahu Akbar.” After this long period, I was able to abandon that bad habit of saying, “I intend to pray for Allah the Exalted,” and so on. So, may Allah bless you, you must struggle with yourselves and compel them to the clear and authentic Sunnah. Keep this noble matter in your mind first, and then the great reward that follows from carrying out this noble command This is a reminder, if Allah wills, whose effects we will find in those with whom we gather, if Allah wills, next year, if Allah writes for us a meeting with you. Now, I hope to listen to your questions, hoping that they are written down and read by Shaykh Ali Khashshan so that the questions are organized and the answers are beneficial, if Allah wills.