whether the imam does it or not. They therefore cannot validly deny that the imams pronounced it, just as they cannot deny that they recited in prayers performed silently, glorified Allah during bowing and prostration, or recited in the final two rakʿahs, and so forth.

For this reason, some who did not complete the takbīrs or pronounce them aloud cited the report narrated by Saʿīd ibn Abd al-Rahmān ibn Abzā from his father:

“He prayed with the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, who did not complete the takbīrs.”

This was related by Abū Dāwūd and by al-Bukhārī in al-Tārīkh al-Kabīr.

Abū Dāwūd al-Tayālisī is reported to have said: “In our view, this is unsound.”

If this report has indeed been accurately preserved, perhaps Ibn Abzā prayed behind the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, at the rear of the mosque, while the Prophet’s voice was faint. He therefore did not hear his takbīrs and thought that he had not completed them. Otherwise, the mass-transmitted hadiths from him establish the contrary. Were this report to contradict them, it would be anomalous and carry no weight.

Nevertheless, many later jurists believe that completing the takbīrs means simply pronouncing them, even silently, and that Alī ibn Abī Tālib, Abū Hurayra, and the other imams merely taught people to pronounce the takbīr during the transitions between postures. This would imply that Muslims generally did not know that no takbīr was being pronounced during the prayer’s downward or upward movements.

This is undoubtedly mistaken, and those familiar with the circumstances do not dispute this. If what was meant were pronouncing the takbīr silently, neither its omission nor its performance could validly be established, for one praying behind an imam