I say: This is a weak chain of transmission, as al-Būṣīrī explained in al-Zawāʾid (56/1), saying:

“This is a weak chain of transmission. Abū ʿAbd Allāh’s status is unknown, and Bishr was declared weak by Aḥmad. Ibn Ḥibbān said: ‘He narrates fabricated reports.’”

Al-Ḥāfiẓ said in al-Taqrīb: “Bishr ibn Rāfiʿ: a jurist, weak in hadith.”

Among the reports that strengthen this hadith and attest to its authenticity is the hadith of Wāʾil ibn Ḥujr, who related it with the same meaning. It was narrated by Abū Dāwūd (932) and al-Tirmidhī (2/27), who graded it good, through the chain of Sufyān, from Salamah ibn Kuhayl, from Ḥujr ibn ʿAnbas, from him.

I say: This is a sound chain of transmission. Its narrators are narrators of the two Shaykhs, apart from Ḥujr ibn ʿAnbas, who is truthful, as stated in al-Taqrīb.

Sufyān is Sufyān ibn Saʿīd al-Thawrī. He was corroborated by ʿAlī ibn Ṣāliḥ, from Salamah ibn Kuhayl, with the wording:

“He prayed behind the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and pronounced ‘Āmīn’ aloud. He then gave the salām to his right and to his left, until I saw the whiteness of his cheek.”

It was narrated by Abū Dāwūd (933). Its chain of transmission is sound as well.

The hadith establishes the prescribed practice of the imam raising his voice when saying ‘Āmīn.’ This is the view of al-Shāfiʿī, Aḥmad, Isḥāq, and other imams, in contrast to Imam Abū Ḥanīfah and his followers. They have no evidence apart from relying on general texts which indicate that the basic rule regarding remembrance is to lower one’s voice. Such evidence carries no weight in the face of a specific hadith on this matter, as is clear to those scholars