And it has been reliably transmitted from ten Companions that they forbade recitation behind the imam.
Al-Shaʿbī said, “I met seventy men who fought at Badr, and every one of them prohibited the follower from reciting behind the imam.”
The Shāfiʿīs and those who side with them cite the ḥadith of ʿUbādah ibn al-Ṣāmit that we have just mentioned. They answer the report, “Whoever prays behind an imam, the imam’s recitation suffices for him,” by quoting Ibn Ḥajar, who judged all of its transmission routes to be flawed, unfit for legal proof. As for the Qur’anic verse and the Prophet’s statement, “When he recites, listen attentively,” they say these are general texts that cover any type of recitation, whereas the ḥadith of ʿUbādah deals specifically with al-Fātiḥah; and a specific proof overrides a general one.
Imam Mālik, however, holds that al-Fātiḥah must be recited in silent prayers but is not prescribed in audible prayers, regarding this position as one that brings together the evidence of both parties.
When the prayer is audible, the imam’s recitation counts for the follower: he gains the reward of listening attentively and the benefit of grasping the meaning through reflection and contemplation. For that reason, the critical scholar Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah preferred this view, and it is the position of most of the early generations. They maintain that when the follower hears the imam reciting he should remain silent, for listening to the imam is better than reciting on his own. Giving ear to the imam’s recitation is part and parcel of following him; a leader who recites to a congregation that does not listen is not truly being followed. This explains the wisdom in dropping the recitation from the follower: keeping in step with his imam takes precedence over everything else—even physical movements.
Ibn Taymiyyah said elsewhere, “Reciting while the imam is reciting aloud is an objectionable act, contrary to the Qur’an, the Sunnah, and the practice of the Companions.”
Many scholars of the modern reformist movement inclined toward this nuanced view championed by Imam Mālik and preferred by Shaykh Taqī al-Dīn, among them Shaykh ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad, Shaykh Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm, and Shaykh ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Saʿdī—may Allah have mercy on them all.