Notes on some of the errors of the followers in their prayer, with an explanation of the virtue of following the imam in his saying of "Ameen."

The Shaykh : I mean by this hadith the saying of our Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) This is based on his saying (peace be upon him) in the first hadith: On this basis came the other hadith: So the meaning of this is obvious: do not precede him in saying "Ameen." Rather, when he says it, you say it with him. The rest of the hadith is very important because it explains the favor of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) upon His believing servants who follow the commands of their noble Prophet. So much so that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) forgives this praying person because he fulfilled this noble command. He (peace be upon him) said: Look at the favor of Allah; He forgives all the previous sins of this praying person, whether small or large, except that Allah forgives them for him. Why? Because he did not precede the imam with "Ameen," and he did not say it early or follow the imam with "Ameen" without preceding him. So he has this great favor from the Merciful Lord that Allah forgives his sins. So what is the state of the praying people today? As we heard today and hear every day, with great regret, in every prayer, these followers must race to precede the imam. The imam, naturally—we are speaking of the prayer where the imam recites aloud and the imam who follows the Sunnah says "Ameen" aloud, as for those who say it quietly, we have no discussion with them at all—he says "Ameen," but we see and observe that the mosque is not barely finished with the recitation of before the mosque is filled with "Ameen." He has not even taken a breath to rest from the recitation of the noble, good surah, Surat al-Fatihah. So we must, first, in obedience to the Messenger (peace be upon him) who commands us to follow him and not precede him in general terms, and second, he commands us specifically not to precede the imam with "Ameen" so that we may attain the forgiveness of the Lord of the Worlds. So what must we do? We listen to the imam, as our Lord (Mighty and Majestic) said in the Qur'an: So if we are truly listening and attentive, we must wait when the imam says You take a short or long breath, then we hear him begin with "A," we begin with "A," and we complete it after the imam with "Ameen, Ameen." If we do that... [we avoid] the disobedience of the noble Prophet and... second, [we attain] the forgiveness of the Lord of the Worlds (Glorified and Exalted is He). I also remind you, and the reminder benefits the believers, that if you are... behind an imam who says "Ameen" aloud, do not precede him with "Ameen," for you would reverse the rule and make yourselves the imam and the imam a follower of you, because he is catching up to you, whereas it is supposed to be the opposite. So be patient. May Allah bless you. Be present with your ears and your minds, be present behind the imam. When you hear... this is it, because taking this breath is what will delay you and prevent you from preceding the imam with "Ameen," and thereby you will be saved from disobeying the Messenger (peace be upon him) in this hadith: Then you will, if Allah wills, attain the forgiveness of the Lord of the Worlds, all of you, as he (peace be upon him) said in the previous hadith: and here we must address the interpretation of The scholars have two opinions on it.

The questioner : No problem, our Shaykh, if we turned toward the north, because the sun is in our eyes.

The Shaykh : I mean... the heat of the youth... what Allah willed.
The scholars, in interpreting his saying (peace be upon him) in this authentic hadith, which is agreed upon by the two Shaykhs, meaning al-Bukhari and Muslim narrated it in their authentic collections, said two things in interpreting his saying (peace be upon him): Two opinions. "When he says Ameen" means when he finishes saying Ameen. By way of explanation, did you hear the silence of the noon in "Ameen"? When the imam finishes saying "Ameen," you begin saying "Ameen."
And the second opinion, which I lean toward finally, is that the meaning is: when he begins, when the imam begins with "Ameen," you begin with "Ameen." And you see that in both interpretations, the one who opposes both interpretations is always in opposition, especially the first opinion.
The first opinion is a bit longer in duration than ours. We say: if you wait a little, meaning you heard the imam say "A... Ameen," you say "Ameen" after him, because in this case you did not precede him. But the first opinion: when he finishes "Ameen" or... a longer breath, as you see. And I see that if we adopt this first opinion in principle to cut off the root of this racing that the masses of praying people are afflicted with, it is preferable in the beginning. As for the end, we do not lag behind the imam; as soon as we hear him say "A," we say "A" after him and complete "Ameen" exactly as he did. This, as we said at the beginning of this talk, is from the chapter of And I say, as he (peace be upon him) said in many of his sermons: Not I... here, and each of you goes to his home and his work, etc., and nothing enters our minds, so we pray in some mosques and hear this disobedience which contains... disobedience, and we remain in it. This is one thing. Second, we do not inform people or warn them of it, and the Messenger (peace be upon him) used to say: And the point from this hadith is his saying: The intended meaning of "ayah" here is not the general customary meaning of an ayah from the Qur'an, no, because the original meaning of "ayah" in the Arabic language is a sentence. It is the complete sentence.
So here the Messenger (peace be upon him) in this hadith commands every Muslim who has been reached by an ayah, meaning a sentence from the hadiths of the Messenger (peace be upon him), to convey it to the people, and thereby the correct knowledge spreads. Because knowledge, as you know, from the saying of Ibn al-Qayyim, one of the great scholars of the Salaf who follow the righteous Salaf in creed, jurisprudence, and conduct, Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allah have mercy on him) used to say:
"Knowledge is: Allah said, His Messenger said *** The Companions said; it is not deception
Knowledge is not: you setting up foolish disagreement *** Between the Messenger and the opinion of a jurist
Neither denial of the attributes and their negation *** out of fear of ta'til (denial of the divine attributes) and tashbih (likening Allah to creation) "
So knowledge, Allah said, the Messenger of Allah said, in the third and final rank, the Companions said, because they are the ones who conveyed to us what Allah said on the tongue of His Prophet, and what he (peace and blessings be upon him) said in his own words from his hadiths. They are the trustworthy ones, they are the ones who conveyed to us this Shari'ah with its Book and the Sunnah of its Prophet. And therefore, we must focus not on conveying "so-and-so said" and "so-and-so said," but on "Allah said" and "the Messenger of Allah said." So the summary of this talk, its summary is in two concise sentences. The first concerns you, O praying people: do not precede the imam with "Ameen" so that you do not disobey the noble Prophet in his command. The second and final sentence is that you convey this hadith to the people behind you and clarify it to them in the manner you heard.
What is this hadith? We repeat it over and over again, because it was his Sunnah, as it came in Sahih al-Bukhari, that he would repeat a word three times so that it is understood from him, meaning so that it is comprehended from him. So the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) says: And this is a reminder, and the reminder benefits the believers... with good behind all the imams. When he says "Ameen," the followers precede him with "Ameen."

The questioner : This was the lesson today.

The Shaykh : May Allah reward you with good

The questioner : Praise be to Allah.

The Shaykh : So a race to good deeds, if Allah wills.

The questioner : May Allah bless you.

The Shaykh : Welcome.
Al-Halabi: The questioner asks, saying: