bowing and prostrating, just as he recites the tashahhud when the imam does and says “Allah is the Greatest” when the imam does. If the follower fails to do so, he is the one at fault.

Even if this hadith were authentic and explicitly contradicted the widely reported, mass-transmitted hadiths and the practice of the Muslim community and its imams, it would not be accorded weight. How much less so when it is not authentic, although some have graded it good. Even if it supported that interpretation, its wording would be general, whereas those other hadiths are specific, and the specific takes precedence over the general. Moreover, its wording,

“and singles himself out for a supplication to their exclusion,”

refers to cases in which they have no share in any supplication. This cannot be the case when they say “Amen.” When they say “Amen” to his supplication whenever he supplicates, they obtain through their own action what he obtains. This is why the qunūt supplication uses the plural:

“O Allah, we seek Your help and Your guidance,”

and so forth. In such cases, he should use the plural form and follow the sunnah as prescribed. Allah knows best.

He—may Allah have mercy on him—was asked:

“Is performing the tarāwīh prayer after Maghrib a sunnah practice or an innovation? It has been mentioned that Imam al-Shāfiʿī performed it after Maghrib and completed it after ʿIshāʾ.”

He replied:

Praise be to Allah, Lord of all worlds. The sunnah is to perform tarāwīh after ʿIshāʾ, as the early generations and the imams agreed. The aforementioned report attributed to