Warning Against the Error of Preempting the Imam with "Ameen"

The Shaykh : I am now reminding you of his saying (peace and blessings be upon him) This is on the same basis as the previous hadith In the second hadith, he said on the basis of Just as the follower's takbir with the imam does not occur except after the imam's takbir, or in other words, except after the imam begins the takbir, at that point the follower begins the takbir. On this exact same basis, if he says "Ameen," then you say "Ameen." That is, if he finishes saying "Ameen," or on the other view, if he begins saying "Ameen," then you begin saying "Ameen." What is the reality today? The reality is exactly the opposite. The imam barely finishes In fact, he is sometimes forced, out of consideration for those who deviate, not to extend the "Ameen" for six movements to alleviate their deviation. That is, he does not say extended for six movements, because by the time he finishes, they have already finished their "Ameen," while he has not yet finished "wa la al-dallin." Therefore, he is forced to extend it for two or, at most, four movements. Here, the situation is completely reversed. The imam becomes the follower, and the follower becomes the imam. The followers say "Ameen" before the imam, and then the imam follows them. This is, glory be to Allah, one of the ugliest appearances that occurs. It does not come from those who are heedless and do not pray, but rather from those who are praying, who have stood before the Lord of the Worlds, seeking nearness to Him by performing this obligation. And yet, they fall into two deviations. One is explicit, while the other is a deviation that I called a deviation because it causes them to lose something very great for the most trivial reason, which is the forgiveness of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He). He said at the end of the hadith Our Lord, in His grace, generosity, and bounty toward His servants, has legislated for them easy means by which they can attain the forgiveness of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He). I say, regarding this forgiveness on such an occasion, that if a Muslim lived the life of Noah (peace be upon him), who remained among his people for a thousand years minus fifty years, and if he lived this long, extended, and blessed life to attain the forgiveness of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He), the price would be very cheap. Because if Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) forgives a person, he lives in the Gardens of Pleasure forever. No matter how much he toils, no matter how long his life is and how much hardship it contains, the price is very small compared to that Paradise, which contains what no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and what has not occurred to the heart of any human being, as stated in the authentic hadith. So what about the price of this forgiveness? This is only from the favor of Allah upon you, O Muslims who pray. The price of this forgiveness from you is that you remember this hadith I say, and I swear by the truth of what I say, that obtaining this forgiveness through this legislated means is easy, but in reality, it is difficult. The proof, I tell you now, is that we, the people of the Sunnah, who always strive to implement in our entire lives whatever we are able to do, such as the saying of our Lord (Blessed and Exalted is He) and to implement in their prayers specifically the saying of their Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) We see that most of these praying people who strive with us to follow the Messenger in general and to follow him in prayer in particular, in response to the mentioned hadith We find that all of them raise their hands when bowing and when rising from it. Why? Because it is easy and requires nothing. But there, the matter requires something great, something to be realized The matter requires that the mind of the praying person be with the reciter, that the mind of the praying person be with the reciter, and that he follow him in his mind in his recitation of al-Fatihah verse by verse. If that is the case, he can hold his breath and not preempt his imam with "Ameen," because he follows him mentally in every verse until he reaches the last verse of al-Fatihah So he holds himself back and does not say the extended "A" unless he hears it from the imam. There is a difference between these movements that we have become accustomed to, which have become our nature and habit, and one of us being mentally present with the imam's recitation to realize this matter So it is necessary... The point of this entire speech is that it is necessary for us to be mentally present with the imam's recitation first, so that we are as Allah (Mighty and Majestic) commanded the believers in general, not to recite the Qur'an while their hearts are heedless of it, as He said So that we are mentally present with what the imam recites first in general, so that we understand what he is reading, and second, to realize this Prophetic matter that leads us to deserve the forgiveness of Allah. So my reminder to you in this blessed gathering, if Allah wills, is that you do not be heedless of following the imam's recitation, and that you hold your breath and do not say "Ameen" until you hear the imam begin saying "Ameen." After that, you say "Ameen" with him. And by that, we can hope, if Allah wills, to attain this great reward, which we do not deserve except by the favor of the Generous Allah, which is the forgiveness of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) for this agreement. In the hadith, the angels were mentioned, as you heard, where the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) explained the command not to preempt the imam by saying This is an explanation for a metaphysical matter that we do not know with our minds, but we understand it with our minds if we understand the words of our Prophet. Our Prophet (may the prayers and peace of Allah be upon him) informs us that there are angels who pray with us. We do not witness them or see them, but they are the ones who populate the houses of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He), as stated in "Sahih al-Bukhari" from the hadith of Abu Hurayrah and others A group descends at the 'Asr prayer and a group ascends. So the mosques are always populated by the angels of Allah. And since the angels of Allah are distinguished from humans, as Allah (Mighty and Majestic) stated explicitly in the Noble Qur'an They do not do as we do. They do not preempt the imam with "Ameen," but rather they follow the imam in "Ameen." When the imam begins "Ameen," they begin. So we, the humans, if we also imitate the angels of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) and do not preempt the imam with "Ameen," then our "Ameen" will agree with the "Ameen" of the angels. Thus, the promise of our Lord (Blessed and Exalted is He) will be fulfilled for us This is what I wanted to remind you of. I hope that this speech does not go with the attendees as something forgotten, but rather that they should plant it in their souls and realize it in their prayer behind their imams. And above that, that the present should convey it to the absent, because I and others who care about the affairs of the Muslims have noticed that this deviation has spread throughout all Islamic lands. We do not exclude any country, even if that country is Makkah or al-Madinah. This deviation has spread and overflowed all the lands. Therefore, in proportion to the spread of the deviation, the reminder, teaching, and warning must spread Now, if any of you has a question about what was heard or anything else that concerns us today in our Islamic life, please go ahead.