of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. Imam Ahmad, may Allah have mercy on him, mentioned a hadith without citing its chain of transmission (1): “Whenever a man leads a people in prayer while there is among them one better than him, they will continue to be in a state of decline.” (2) This is because they lowered themselves, so Allah lowered their standing.

THE LEADING OF THE ONE WHO REPEATS CERTAIN LETTERS, AND OF ONE WHO DOES NOT ARTICULATE SOME LETTERS CLEARLY

His statement, “the fa’fa’”: this means that it is disliked for the fa’fa’—one who repeats the letter f—to lead the prayer; that is, whenever he pronounces the letter f, he repeats it.

His statement, “the tamtām”: this is one who repeats the letter t. Some people repeat the letter w or another letter.

In any case, it is disliked for one who repeats letters to lead the prayer because of the addition of a letter. Nevertheless, if he leads the people in prayer, his leading is valid.

His statement, “and one who does not articulate some letters clearly”: that is, he obscures them somewhat. It does not mean that he omits them, for if he omits them, his prayer is invalid if this occurs in al-Fātiḥah, due to its deficiency. But if he pronounces them without articulating them clearly, then his leading the prayer is disliked.

The author did not mention that it is disliked for one who does not recite with tajwīd to lead the prayer, because reciting without tajwīd is not disliked.

Tajwīd falls under the heading of beautifying one’s voice in the recitation of the Quran; it is not obligatory. If a person recites with it in order to improve his voice, that is good; but if he does not recite with it, there is no blame upon him, nor has he missed anything for whose omission he would be sinful. Indeed, Shaykh al-Islam, may Allah have mercy on him, criticized those people who concern themselves with pronunciation and may repeat a word twice