Therefore, once the exegetes—earlier and later alike—had unanimously clarified the meaning of this verse, it became impermissible to dismiss the first and second hadiths on the pretext that they are solitary reports, and equally impermissible to claim that the Quran may not be interpreted by means of such reports. First, the verse in question has been explained by scholars well-versed in the language of the Quran. Second, the Prophet’s hadith never contradicts the Quran; rather, it explains and elucidates it, as we pointed out at the beginning of this discussion. All the more so when the verse itself has nothing to do with what a Muslim must recite in prayer, whether that prayer is obligatory or supererogatory.

As for the two hadiths just cited, their purport is explicit: the worshipper’s prayer is not valid unless he recites al-Fātiḥah. One hadith states, “There is no prayer for the one who does not recite the Opening of the Book,” while the other says, “Whoever performs a prayer in which he does not recite the Opening of the Book, it is defective—defective, defective, incomplete.” 1 In other words, it is lacking; whoever finishes his prayer in such a deficient state has, in reality, not prayed at all, and his prayer is therefore invalid, as is plain from the first hadith.

Once this fact is clear to us, we can then feel at ease with the hadiths