occasionally recite aloud the supplication seeking refuge with Allah. If some Companions recited the opening supplication and the supplication for refuge aloud, with the other Companions’ approval, then reciting the basmalah aloud is all the more deserving of the same treatment: it may be prescribed on occasion for an overriding benefit.

However, hadith scholars do not dispute that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, did not recite either the opening supplication or the supplication for refuge aloud. Indeed, it is authentically reported that Abū Hurayrah said to him:

“O Messenger of Allah, during your silence between the opening takbīr and the recitation, what do you say?”

He replied:

“I say: ‘O Allah, distance me from my sins as You have distanced the east from the west. O Allah, cleanse me of my sins as a white garment is cleansed of dirt. O Allah, wash away my sins with snow, water, and hail.’”

The Sunan collections also report that the Prophet used to seek refuge with Allah in prayer before reciting the Quran. The case for reciting the basmalah aloud is stronger than that for reciting the supplication for refuge aloud, because it is a verse of the Book of Allah Most High, and scholars have differed over whether reciting it is obligatory. They have also differed over whether the opening supplication and the supplication for refuge are obligatory, with two positions on this in the school of Ahmad and elsewhere. Nevertheless, the disagreement over these is less substantial than the disagreement over the obligation to recite the basmalah. The scholars who consider reciting it obligatory are more eminent and more numerous.

Yet it has not been established that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, used to recite it aloud. Neither the Sahīh collections nor the Sunan collections contain an authentic hadith explicitly stating that he recited it aloud. All the hadiths that explicitly state that he recited it aloud are