required, as when someone praying behind an imam begins reciting al-Fātihah, then hears the imam’s recitation and falls silent to listen. When the imam pauses, he completes his recitation, and it suffices. Ahmad indicated this. Likewise, if the silence is due to forgetfulness or afflictions, or to mistakenly switching to another passage, his recitation is not invalidated. When he remembers, he recites what remains of it. If, after remembering it, he persists in what he was doing, he invalidates his recitation and must begin it anew.”

He said: “If he brings forward a verse of it out of its proper place, he invalidates his recitation. If this was a mistake, he returns to the point of the error and completes it.”

Thus, they did not waive the prescribed order on account of an excuse, although they waived uninterrupted recitation, since the requirement of uninterrupted recitation is less stringent. If someone recites part of a surah today and another part tomorrow, that is permissible; but reciting its verses in reverse order is not. Regarding the prescribed order, a distinction is made between a self-contained passage that may properly be recited on its own and one that depends on another passage.

For example, if someone says:

“The path of those You have blessed,”

this does not convey a complete meaning unless he says:

“Guide us to the straight path—the path of those You have blessed.”

But if he says:

“You alone we worship, and You alone we ask for help,”

and then says:

“All praise is for Allah, Lord of all worlds, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful,”

this does convey a complete meaning. Yet no one makes such an error: no one begins al-Fātihah in this way, whether deliberately or mistakenly. Rather, mistakes occur in passages whose meaning requires the prescribed order. This, then, distinguishes what they mentioned concerning something forgotten from al-Fātihah from something forgotten during a complete recitation of the Quran.