A Note on the Issue of the Follower Preempting the Imam (with "Ameen")

The Shaykh : The meaning of the hadith is not what you are doing, racing to say "Ameen" before the Imam. The Imam barely finishes reciting and pauses with a clear, silent nun to take a breath so he can raise his voice and say "Ameen." But the congregation of worshippers preempts him with "Ameen." Why? And what does this indicate? It indicates the heedlessness of the worshippers and that they do not focus their minds with the recitation of the Imam who is before them. Therefore, they fall into such a glaring deviation. And if you are amazed, be amazed at all the amazement: there is one of our brothers who preaches every Friday in the Salah al-Din Mosque, namely the honorable professor Abu Malik, whom you all know, if Allah wills. In every Friday prayer, he does not say the takbir until he alerts the attendees who will pray behind him: "Do not preempt me with 'Ameen.'" And, oh, the glory of Allah! It is as if he is speaking to the inanimate. He barely reads the first rak'ah before the mosque erupts with "Ameen" before we hear his "Ameen." In fact, we do not hear his "Ameen" because his "Ameen" goes along with the "Ameen" of the worshippers, instead of the "Ameen" of the worshippers going along with the "Ameen" of the Imam. Therefore, I remind you of this authentic hadith: I believe the cause of this heedlessness goes back to the people of knowledge, if there are any who can truly be called people of knowledge. For we testify to Allah and firmly believe that knowledge is not for the jurist to read a book from one of the four followed schools of jurisprudence of the people of the Sunnah and the community, and then not know whether what he read is established by the Book, by the Sunnah, or by the consensus of the Ummah. And if that consensus is transmitted, is it a valid, correct consensus? Or was it established by analogical reasoning, opinion, and derivation? And is that analogical reasoning obvious or subtle? Is it correct or weak? Jurisprudence is not reading a book from those books and then not knowing where these issues he reads, adopts, and spreads come from. This is not knowledge. Knowledge, as that true, verified scholar said, namely Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah (may Allah have mercy on him):
"Knowledge is what Allah said, what His Messenger said..." etc. So now, you hardly find a true scholar who spreads the Sunnah among the people, who spreads among them his sayings (peace and blessings be upon him) and the authentic ones among them. Not everything attributed to the Messenger is an established, authentic hadith. Therefore, knowledge is not, as I mentioned earlier quoting some of them, but knowledge is what Allah said and what the Messenger of Allah said. So tell me, who do you find who spreads the authentic sayings and established actions of the Messenger? Among these authentic sayings on which the two noble ones, al-Bukhari and Muslim (may Allah reward them with good), agreed in narrating:The Shaykh Our righteous predecessors used to say that if a hadith was less important than this, and all the hadiths of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) are important, but they are not equal. The hadith that contains an obligation is not like the hadith that contains a recommended practice, and so on. They used to say that if a Muslim traveled a private journey, and in their expression, if he packed his saddlebags for this hadith alone, his packing of the saddlebags would be a cheap price for that single hadith. And here you are, and praise be to Allah, you are given the opportunity to hear such a hadith in a few moments. So why do you not care to obtain this great reward that the Lord of the Worlds has ordained on the tongue of His noble Messenger, that He will forgive your sins? With what? Only by not preempting the Imam with "Ameen." Look at how His saying (Blessed and Exalted is He) is true here and in everything He has prescribed: What is the result and what is the reward? Allah will forgive their sins. So if we lived the entire life of Noah (peace be upon him) in obedience to Allah (Mighty and Majestic) and in His worship, and we were guaranteed that Allah would forgive us, that long, extended effort, which we assumed was the life of Noah (peace be upon him), would still be a cheap price. So why do we not first care to apply this Sunnah in ourselves, and then spread it among these heedless people? I wanted to remind you of this Sunnah because we are callers to the Sunnah. Because we claim that we are callers to the Sunnah, but the reality is that we are falling short in following the Sunnah. We may be striving in calling to the Sunnah with words, but we are, indeed, falling short in applying the Sunnah in most of its arenas and fields. What is our call? Our call is the call of the Book and the Sunnah. But the truth, and I say the truth, is that there are calls, and many calls indeed, in the Islamic land today, all declaring the call to the Book and the Sunnah. But in this age especially, it is not enough for the call of the callers to be confined to these two foundations, and they are necessary, the Book and the Sunnah, they are necessary. But a third thing must be added to them. And this is not from me, nor from anyone else who preceded us from the people of knowledge and virtue, but it is from the Lord of the Worlds who revealed to the heart of His noble Messenger: So I hope you pay attention to this verse to understand that it is a verse with clear indication that there is something else that should be added to the two foundations mentioned earlier, and it is agreed that Islam is established upon them, the Book and the Sunnah, as he (peace and blessings be upon him) said in the famous authentic hadith: So these two foundations are agreed upon by the scholars of the Muslims, past and present. But I said it should be noted that a third addition is required, and standing upon the Book and the Sunnah is not straight for one who does not add this third addition, which is derived from His saying (Blessed and Exalted is He) in the previous verse: So this verse gives us an indication by the concept of the opposite that following the path of the believers is the path to reaching the Garden of Delight, and deviating from the path of the believers is the path to entering the Hellfire. So it is obligatory upon us, who call to the Book and the Sunnah, that our call be established upon the Book and the Sunnah and following the path of the believers. And here, a pause is necessary, because many people think that the path of the believers is the masses of Muslims today, with their errors and their rightness, with their knowledge and their ignorance, with their practice of knowledge and their neglect of knowledge. Practically, this is not what is meant by the path of the believers. Rather, what is meant by the path of the believers are the first believers who were mentioned in the hadith whose authenticity is mass-transmitted from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family), which says: And do not say or narrate the hadith "The best of generations." The hadith, despite its many chains, most of which are authentic, praise be to Allah, and in the two Sahihs, it does not contain "The best of generations is my generation," but rather it contains: Narrate the hadith like this: These are the believers whom Allah (Mighty and Majestic) threatened those who oppose the Messenger and deviate from the path of the believers. He said: