obligation.”

The Qāḍī said, “This is an explicit statement that the prayer is valid even without al-Fātiḥa and that the sūrah is not singled out as indispensable.”

This same report appears in al-Khallāl’s Jāmiʿ in a different wording. I have copied it from the Qāḍī’s own handwritten selection from that work, where he writes: “Harb transmitted from him: ‘If someone forgets to recite the Opening of the Book and instead recites another portion of the Qur’an,’ he (Aḥmad) said, ‘What harm is there in that? Has he not recited Qur’an?’” Al-Khallāl added, “Aḥmad later retracted the position that Harb related from him.”

In this particular wording, the narration does not necessarily deny the obligation of al-Fātiḥa outright; rather, it shows that the duty is waived when it is forgotten. Thus it becomes one of the duties of the prayer that are required when one remembers them but are excused when omitted through forgetfulness—like the tasbīḥ (glorification) said during bowing and prostration, according to him. This is one of the two opinions ascribed to al-Shāfiʿī, and it is also the view of al-Ḥasan and al-Shaʿbī: whoever forgets al-Fātiḥa should perform the prostrations of forgetfulness.

A narration from ʿUmar (Allah be pleased with him) states that the prayer is sound if al-Fātiḥa is forgotten, but Imām Aḥmad, al-Bukhārī, and others regarded that report as weak. Another report from ʿUmar, on the other hand, says that he repeated the prayer.

If we maintain that al-Fātiḥa is not required specifically and that a single verse suffices, the apparent implication is that even a short verse—even a single word—would fulfil the requirement; yet it could be said that this narration should rather be understood