chain, its narrators heard directly from one another, and a report with such a chain cannot be authenticated.

He said:

Sa‘īd ibn al-Musayyib, ‘Urwa, al-Sha‘bī, ‘Ubayd Allāh ibn ‘Abd Allāh, Nāfi‘ ibn Jubayr, Abū al-Mulayh, al-Qāsim ibn Muhammad, Abū Mijlaz, Makhūl, Mālik, Ibn ‘Awn and Sa‘īd ibn Abī ‘Arūba held that one should recite.

(Anas and ‘Abd Allāh ibn Yazīd al-Ansārī regarded [recitation] behind the imam as recommended) (*).

I say:

Muslim narrated in his Sahīh that ‘Atā’ ibn Yasār asked Zayd ibn Thābit al-Ansārī about reciting along with the imam. He replied:

“One should not recite along with the imam at all.”

This concerns reciting along with him when he recites aloud, as al-Zuhrī said:

“The people then stopped reciting along with the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, in those prayers in which he recited aloud.”

As for prayers in which recitation is quiet, one is not said to recite “along with him,” just as one member of the congregation is not said to recite along with another. Nor is one said to offer the opening supplication along with him, recite the testimony of faith along with him, or glorify Allah along with him while bowing and prostrating.

Likewise, the report cited earlier from Ibn Mas‘ūd states that he used to instruct those praying behind the imam to listen silently to the imam’s recitation, yet he himself would recite behind the imam.

Accordingly, his statement—if he did say it—or the statement of his companions who transmitted from him, such as al-Aswad: