Is the imam's saying "Hear Allah praises those who praise Him" a command for the follower to say "Our Lord, to You belongs all praise"?

The questioner : Do you have a comment on this? Please proceed.

The Shaykh : Please go ahead.

Another questioner : Our Shaykh, may Allah bless you and your knowledge and benefit us with it.

The Shaykh : May Allah preserve you

Another questioner : One might be inclined to argue using the hadith of the one whose prayer was defective, or the Prophet's (peace and blessings be upon him) teaching of the one whose prayer was defective, and the one whose prayer was defective was praying alone. The hadith of following the imam One might be inclined to think, along with the statement that one should not follow the mu'adhdhin in the two "Hayya" calls, that this is proof that the follower should say "Our Lord, to You belongs all praise," because they argue with it that it is a command for the follower to say "Our Lord, to You belongs all praise." Yes, and this is a command for the one praying alone, and the one praying alone and the imam are in the same state. So what is your view on that?

The Shaykh : Clarify for me the wording of your last statement, but what is the connection between the last part of the speech and the first part of it, which relates to the hadith of the one whose prayer was defective? You said that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) commanded the one whose prayer was defective to say, when he raises his head from the bowing, "Hear Allah praises those who praise Him."

The questioner : Yes.

The Shaykh : Now, is there anyone who says that the one praying alone does not say "Our Lord, to You belongs all praise"?

The questioner : No, there is not.

The Shaykh : Then what is the connection to the hadith of the one whose prayer was defective, since the one whose prayer was defective combines both commands? Or, to put it another way, the one praying alone combines the tasmi' (saying "Hear Allah praises those who praise Him") with the tahmid (saying "Our Lord, to You belongs all praise"), even though the Messenger (peace be upon him) said to the one whose prayer was defective, "Say 'Hear Allah praises those who praise Him.'" If he does not have an answer, we will hear from you.

The questioner : It may be said that the one praying alone was not commanded to say anything other than the tasmi'.

The Shaykh : Fine. Are the commands limited to the hadith of the one whose prayer was defective, or is it possible that there are other commands? Or, in other words, if a command comes that is not mentioned in the hadith of the one whose prayer was defective, do we negate the value of this command because it was not reported in the hadith of the one whose prayer was defective? Or, as we know, rulings do not come in a single burst but rather in succession. So if a command comes that is not mentioned in the hadith of the one whose prayer was defective...

The questioner : The correct view is that the prayer did not stop being based solely on the hadith of the one whose prayer was defective, but there are other commands.

The Shaykh : Well, if he (peace be upon him) said to the one whose prayer was defective, "Say 'Hear Allah praises those who praise Him,'" this does not negate that the one praying alone today says, in addition to that, "Our Lord, to You belongs all praise," if we are in agreement—and I think we are in agreement, if Allah wills—then the question returns: what is the connection of the hadith of the one whose prayer was defective to our topic, or to the second part of the question?

The questioner : The topic of the adhan?

The Shaykh : Ah

The questioner : One might argue with this, saying, "Why did you single out, for example, not saying 'Hayya 'ala al-salah' and 'Hayya 'ala al-falah'?" Here, you must distinguish between the tahmid and the tasmi'.

The Shaykh : I see that the issue is a proof for us. We combined, in both issues, the application of the general text and the application of the specific text. That is, when he (peace be upon him) said we applied the general text for whom? For the one praying alone, correct? Please proceed.

Another questioner : Now, the vast majority, and we may be among them, say "Our Lord, to You belongs all praise." Does this invalidate, for example, a pillar, or does it mean...

The Shaykh : You did not abolish the Sunnah, may Allah bless you. And you say frankly, "Muslim, we do such and such now." What you do: is it when you raise your head from the bowing, or after you have fully straightened up in the bowing? Whatever you did, you contradicted the Sunnah.

The questioner : When the imam says "Hear Allah praises those who praise Him," we say "Our Lord, to You belongs all praise."

The Shaykh: Okay

Another questioner : He says, "When?"

The questioner : And I am raising [my head] after I raise from the bowing.

The Shaykh : And you...

The questioner : And during the raising.

The Shaykh : And during the raising. Fine, during the raising, then the imam says "Our Lord, to You belongs all praise, a good and abundant praise, blessed in it, blessed upon it, as our Lord loves and is pleased with," and you are silent?

The questioner : I say all of this.

The Shaykh : No, you do not say it.

The questioner : I only dropped "Hear Allah praises those who praise Him."

The Shaykh : You do not say this.

The questioner : I did not say this.

The Shaykh : Why? How do you remain silent? Is there a place in the prayer where a person remains silent from the remembrance of Allah, while it is a place for the remembrance of Allah?

The questioner : According to the opinion that we took only this.

The Shaykh : Shaykh, we are done with that. Now we have the second standing, and in this second standing, some people begin the position that you know. Why? Because it is the second standing. So in this second standing, where some people place the right hand over the left, what do you say? Do you remain silent?

The questioner : No

The Shaykh : This is first.

The questioner : The formulations of the supplications mentioned.

The Shaykh : Behind the imam, O Shaykh.

The questioner : Behind the imam, after "Our Lord, to You belongs all praise, a good and abundant praise, blessed in it," to the end of it.

The Shaykh : So you combined the tasmi' and the tahmid.

The questioner : We did not say "Hear Allah praises those who praise Him." The imam said "Hear Allah praises those who praise Him," and we said "Our Lord, to You belongs all praise, a good and abundant praise," based on that statement.

The Shaykh : Fine. So I may have misunderstood in hearing or understanding; one of the two must be the case. So I say: when you raised your head from the bowing like this, what did you do? Nothing? And this is what we are going around and around on.

The questioner : A moment, I understood you, O Shaykh.

The Shaykh : Ah

The questioner : When the imam said "Hear Allah praises those who praise Him" during his raising, this is a statement.The Shaykh : During his raising, after you heard the imam's saying "Hear Allah praises those who praise Him," you said "Our Lord, to You belongs all praise" and continued in the supplications.

The Shaykh : This contradicts the Sunnah. That is, the Prophet sometimes prayed alone, or not?

The questioner : Yes.

The Shaykh : Fine. Did he do as he did when he was praying with people as an imam, or not?

The questioner : As an imam.

The Shaykh : Exactly. Fine. When he raised his head from the bowing, what did he say? "Hear Allah praises those who praise Him," and then while standing he said "Our Lord, to You belongs all praise." You are now contradicting this Sunnah by placing one phrase in place of another.

The questioner : Does this contradiction, O Shaykh, invalidate this pillar? Does it invalidate something of the prayer?

The Shaykh : No, that is a second topic. No, no, we are discussing now how we perform the Sunnah, or fulfill the commands of the Messenger (peace be upon him) in their entirety, generality, and comprehensiveness, or in their restriction and specification. That is the topic. As for the topic of whether the prayer is incomplete or valid—it is valid. That is another topic. Without a doubt, it is sufficient for us now to say, regarding the positive aspect that we adopt, that we do as the Prophet did when we follow behind the imam: we combine the tasmi' and the tahmid. This is from the positive aspect that we adopt. As for the others who do not adopt the tasmi' behind the imam, we say, without a doubt, their prayer is valid.

The questioner : They understood the hadith like this. They understood, and I am among them, that the hadith says: when he says "Hear Allah praises those who praise Him," then say "Our Lord, to You belongs all praise." That it is a command only to say "Our Lord, to You belongs all praise" behind the imam.

The Shaykh : Correct, my brother.

The questioner : Without the tasmi'.

The Shaykh : Correct, may Allah bless you.

The questioner : So we said this is a ruling for the follower, and the tasmi' is a ruling for the one praying alone and the imam.

The Shaykh : Yes, but may Allah bless you, you know the saying of the scholars: "Mentioning a thing does not negate what is other than it." Do you understand this statement? Yes. Mentioning a thing does not negate what is other than it. So the fact that the Messenger commanded the follower in this hadith to say "Our Lord, to You belongs all praise" does not mean, "Do not say 'Hear Allah praises those who praise Him.'" And we brought you this by the hadith of the ameen. When the imam says then say "Ameen." This does not mean that the imam does not say "Ameen." This is a matter left unspoken, and this is the application of the scholars' statement: "Mentioning a thing does not negate what is other than it." And as Ibn Hazm (may Allah have mercy on him) says in many issues: "We always take the added ruling, the added part of the rulings, and we do not strike the hadiths against each other." We take a ruling from one hadith and a ruling from another hadith, and we combine them and believe in them, unless there is a conflict. The conflict in what we are discussing could have been if the imam said, "When I say 'Hear Allah praises those who praise Him,' then say 'Our Lord, to You belongs all praise' only," or "Do not say anything but 'Our Lord, to You belongs all praise,'" meaning a tool of restriction, by whatever Arabic expression. But since it is a command for this, it does not negate what is other than it. The command for a thing does not negate what is other than it, absolutely.

The questioner : May Allah reward you with good.

The Shaykh: And you too

The questioner : In truth, we say this, and even we have argued for it.

The Shaykh : May Allah reward you with good.

The questioner : That is, we did not understand this.

The Shaykh : May Allah reward you with good.

The questioner : So we seek forgiveness from Allah (Exalted and Majestic is He).

The Shaykh : Welcome.

The questioner : This phrase, "Mentioning a thing does not negate what is other than it"... as they say...

Another questioner : Why do we not apply it to "Hayya 'ala al-salah" and "La hawla wa la quwwata illa billah" and combine them?

The Shaykh : My brother, regarding the combining of prayers, we do not act based on a single hadith. We return to the issue of grasping the evidence. We acted upon both texts without negating one with the other. However, the principle that "mentioning a thing does not negate what is other than it" does not mean that we introduce something that was not in the Shari'ah. It means that we act upon what came in the Shari'ah in a text other than the one we are currently considering. The principle that "mentioning a thing does not negate what is other than it" does not mean that it negates religious innovation. It does not negate religious innovation. Rather, it means that mentioning a thing in one hadith does not negate acting upon something else in another hadith. This is the intended meaning.