to use one of the two forms, this would be like his teaching the Quran to ‘Umar in one mode of recitation and to Hishām ibn Hakīm in another: both were Quran whose recitation Allah had permitted. Likewise, tarjīʿ in the call to prayer is established in Abū Mahdhūrah’s call, but is absent from Bilāl’s call as transmitted in the Sunan collections. The same applies to reciting “In the name of Allah” aloud or quietly: authentic reports establish that a group of Companions recited it aloud, that most recited it quietly, and that some did both.

As for what is transmitted from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, the reports in the Sahīh and Sunan collections indicate that he did not recite it aloud, which accords with the practice of most of his Companions and his community. In the Sahīh collection, the reports of Anas, ‘Ā’ishah and Abū Hurayrah indicate this clearly and unequivocally. The Sunan collections contain other reports, such as that of Ibn Mughaffal and others. There is no hadith in the Sahīh and Sunan collections mentioning that he recited it aloud. All the hadiths explicitly reporting that he did so are weak according to hadith scholars. For this reason, they included none of them in the principal hadith collections. There are, however, reports in the Sahīh and Sunan collections that admit more than one interpretation.

Al-Tabarānī narrated, with a good chain of transmission, from Ibn ‘Abbās:

“The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, used to recite it aloud when he was in Mecca. When he migrated to Medina, he ceased reciting it aloud and continued thus until he died.”

Abū Dāwūd also narrated it in al-Nāsikh wa-l-Mansūkh (The Abrogating and the Abrogated). This