by drawing distinctions that are open to objections; this is not the place to set them out and answer them. Some carried analogy to extremes, saying that if someone renews his intention to enter prayer after beginning the takbīr but before completing it, this does not suffice: he must have that intention from its very beginning. Others said that renewing the intention upon entering prayer does not suffice unless he verbally names the prayer he intends, saying, “Such-and-such a prayer.” Yet no group requires this, nor is it supported by any transmitted report.

Section

The opening takbīr is the takbīr accompanied by the intention to perform the obligatory prayer, or preceded by that intention by a short interval, as explained above. According to Mālik and all scholars apart from a few isolated dissenters, it is obligatory upon the person praying alone, the imam, and the person praying behind an imam. It is reported that Ibn Shihāb said: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “The opening takbīr is incumbent upon the person praying alone, the imam, and the person praying behind an imam.”

Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab and Ibn Shihāb held that if someone forgets the opening takbīr when praying behind an imam but pronounces the takbīr for bowing, it suffices in place of the opening takbīr even if he did not intend it as such. Contrary to the interpretation advanced by some later scholars, this does not indicate that they did not regard the opening takbīr as obligatory. Rather, what they meant—and Allah knows best and judges most wisely—is that it suffices in place of the opening takbīr because the person had already formed his intention when rising to pray: someone who rises to pray cannot conceivably lack that intention. His earlier intention thus became linked to the takbīr for bowing because of the brief interval between them. His entry into prayer was therefore valid, and the unit of prayer counted, since the imam bears the responsibility for recitation on his behalf.

Mālik, may Allah have mercy on him, did not accept this, saying, “That applies only if he intended it as the opening takbīr.” Although his position permits the intention to precede entry into prayer, as we have mentioned, by intending this takbīr as the takbīr for bowing—which is a sunnah—the person had annulled his earlier intention. According to Mālik, it would suffice in place of the opening takbīr and become linked to the earlier intention only if he had no particular intention when pronouncing it.

The disagreement between him and the other two therefore concerns whether the earlier intention is annulled by redirecting it towards the takbīr for bowing, which is a sunnah. Mālik—may Allah Most High have mercy on him—held that it is thereby annulled, whereas Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab and Ibn Shihāb held that it is not. This is comparable to the statement of