because many people are forgetful and count them on their fingers. This presents a difficulty, for when he bows, he must spread his fingers, and when he prostrates, his fingers must be laid flat. In that case, he may count them using pebbles or date pits: he places four date pits in his pocket, and after performing the first rak‘ah, he throws away one of them, and so on until he finishes. There is nothing wrong with this, since there is a need for it, especially for one who is very forgetful.

His statement, “and prompting his imam,” means that the worshipper may prompt his imam—that is, alert him when he makes a mistake.

His statement, “his imam,” means: not anyone else. Thus, one should not prompt a person reciting near him if he makes a mistake. This is for two reasons:

1. There is no connection between him and you, unlike the imam.

2. It causes a person to occupy himself with listening to someone whose recitation he is not instructed to listen to, and consequently to follow along with him, although he is not commanded to do so.

Restricting the ruling to mere permissibility, as is apparent from the author’s wording, is open to question. Prompting the imam is of two kinds:

1. Obligatory prompting.

2. Recommended prompting.

Obligatory prompting is to prompt him concerning something which, if done deliberately, invalidates the prayer. Thus, if he adds an extra rak‘ah, prompting him is obligatory, because deliberately adding a rak‘ah invalidates the prayer. Likewise, if he makes a grammatical error in al-Fatihah that changes the meaning, prompting him is obligatory, because a grammatical error in al-Fatihah that changes the meaning invalidates the prayer. For example, if the imam says, “Guide us to the straight path—the path…”