With this understood, vocal utterances fall into three categories.

The first conveys meaning by linguistic convention, either independently or in combination with another word, as with fī (“in”) and 'an (“about”). This constitutes speech, as do yad (“hand”), dam (“blood”), fam (“mouth”), and khadd (“cheek”).

The second conveys meaning naturally, such as sighing, groaning, weeping, and the like.

The third conveys no meaning, either naturally or by linguistic convention, such as clearing the throat. Ahmad used to do this during his prayer. His followers transmitted two opinions from him concerning whether clearing the throat invalidates prayer. If we adopt the opinion that it does, there are two views concerning someone who does so out of necessity.

Thus, there are three opinions on the matter:

The first is that it does not invalidate prayer under any circumstances. This is the position of Abū Yūsuf and one of the two opinions reported from Mālik; indeed, it is the apparent position of his school.

The second is that it invalidates prayer in all circumstances. This is the position of al-Shāfi'ī and one of the two opinions within the schools of Ahmad and Mālik.

The third is that if a person does so for a valid excuse, the prayer is not invalidated; otherwise, it is. This is the position of Abū Hanīfa, Muhammad, and others. They said that if he does so to improve and clear his voice