and al-Awzā‘ī, al-Thawrī, and Abū Hanīfah differ, it is impermissible to declare one person’s view correct rather than another’s without evidence. Allah knows best.

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

Was the practice of relaying the imam’s words from behind him observed during the lifetime of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, or at any time during the rule of the Rightly Guided Caliphs? If not, then, assuming there is no fear of disrupting the following of the imam, the prescribed composure in prayer, the continuity of the rows, or the listening of those behind the imam to him, is the person who does this to be described as committing an innovation if any of these things is disrupted? Have any Muslim scholars held that his prayer is thereby invalidated? What is the ruling on someone who, after the matter has been explained to him, believes this to be an act that brings him closer to Allah, whether or not he performs it?

He replied:

The practice of relaying the imam’s words, repeating the declarations of Allah’s greatness, and raising one’s voice with words of praise and the concluding salutation was not observed during the lifetime of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, nor during the rule of his caliphs, nor for a long time thereafter, except on two occasions:

On one occasion, the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, was thrown from a horse he was riding, so he prayed seated in his house, and Abū Bakr relayed his declarations of Allah’s greatness. This is how Muslim narrated it in his Sahīh. On another occasion, during his final illness, Abū Bakr relayed his words. This is well known.