The imam made a mistake in the recitation and prostrated for forgetfulness; is his prayer valid or invalid?

The questioner : The question concerns prayer. On one occasion, I was praying in Cairo, and the imam prayed with us and made a mistake in the recitation. He prostrated for forgetfulness, thinking that this would rectify the error in the recitation. A disagreement arose after the prayer. One of the brothers who were present, and I think he was from Tunisia, said, "In our Shafi'i school, this prayer is invalid because he introduced a prostration that is not valid, meaning?"

The Shaykh : Ah.

The questioner : And he said that the prayer should be repeated. Some people, of course, left the mosque, and some were overcome by doubt. Is there anything required of them in such a situation? And is it obligatory to follow the imam in this mistake, or not?

The Shaykh : Following the imam, my brother, is a principle of the Shari'ah that must be applied, whether he is correct or mistaken, whether he is intentional or forgetful. This is based on his saying (peace be upon him): This is an explicit text that if the imam leaves a pillar of the prayer due to an excuse, such as standing because of his inability and illness, then those who are not excused, meaning the healthy and sound, should follow him and participate with him in sitting, so they pray sitting as he sits.
Then we have other texts that confirm for us that we follow these followers in the first part of the hadith: that we follow him even if he is mistaken. For example, if he forgets the first tashahhud, as we mentioned in the first sitting, and stands up forgetting, then remembers, if he remembers and returns, as detailed in the previous explanation, we follow him and return with him to the tashahhud. Or if he does not return because he had already completed standing, we follow him in his mistake. Then, if he prostrates two prostrations of forgetfulness, we prostrate with him. In fact, something more important than this scenario occurred in his time (peace be upon him): he prayed the Zuhr prayer with five rak'ahs. When he finished with them, they said to him, "O Messenger of Allah, did you add to the prayer?" He said: They said, "You prayed five." So he prostrated the two prostrations of forgetfulness, then said: So the Companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) followed him in this addition, and they knew until the last moment, and even after that, that the Zuhr prayer is four. Therefore, they said to him, "O Messenger of Allah," because this possibility was present that an addition had been made to the prayer. He said, "No." They said to him, "If you prayed five, you were forgetful." So he prayed two rak'ahs, prostrated two prostrations, and explained to them the reason for the prostration by his saying (peace be upon him): In this hadith is a refutation of the famous hadith that came in the Muwatta of Imam Malik without a chain: This hadith has no basis in narration, and it is false in knowledge, because this hadith in the two Sahihs, in al-Bukhari and Muslim, clarifies the direction of the addition of the fifth rak'ah by his human weakness, when he says: The point here is that his Companions (peace and blessings be upon him) followed him in this addition. This addition, if it had occurred intentionally, would have invalidated the prayer, but because it occurred from him (peace be upon him) out of forgetfulness, the two prostrations of forgetfulness rectified this addition. So in this case, when his Companions followed the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), we take from this the ruling that if this incident occurs, and it occurs often and we are asked about it repeatedly, what do these followers do if the imam stands for the fifth? We say it is necessary to follow him. Here is a doubt mentioned by some commentators: "The Companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) followed the Prophet in this addition only because the time was the time of legislation." This doubt comes to mind, but we say: if this doubt were an excuse for the Companions to follow him and not for those after them to follow their imam if such forgetfulness occurred, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) would have clarified that the original ruling for such following is that it is not permissible, because it involves adding a pillar, but you have no harm in following me because you think that perhaps a new legislation has come. If this doubt had any merit, he (peace be upon him) would have brought a legislation suitable for the time that would come after him. And something similar to what happened to him occurred with some imams. It is perhaps good to mention here, and the time now may speak with the language of departure, to mention something like his saying (peace be upon him) when he spoke about the days of the Dajjal, that one of his days is like a year, one like a month, one like a week, and the rest of his days are like your days. That question came: "Are five prayers sufficient for us in such days?" He said: If he gave us a ruling about a matter that differs from the days that were in his time (peace be upon him) or in the times after him, and from here this precise legislation reminds us of his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): So if there were a new legislation that differed from the imams who would come after him (peace and blessings be upon him) and those following him, he would have clarified to them that this is a special case. Therefore, we should not pay attention to such a doubt, namely "The Companions followed the Prophet only because it was the time of legislation," because we say: if that were the case, Allah the Exalted would have ordered his Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) to clarify the matter to the people and not conceal it. And this is sufficient, and praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds.