“It indicates the permissibility of raising one’s voice in the takbir so the people can hear and follow, and that the congregant may time his movements by the voice of the prompter (mukabbir). This is our position and that of the majority; some even claimed consensus on it, but I do not consider that consensus sound. Qadi Iyad reports that within our own school some scholars held the follower’s prayer invalid, others held the prompter’s prayer invalid, some required the imam’s permission, and some said that if the prompter deliberately strained his voice both his prayer and the prayer of those linked to him would be nullified. All of this is weak. The correct view is that every one of these practices is permissible, that the prayers of both the prompter and the listener are valid, and that the imam’s permission is not a condition. Allah knows best.” I say: We quoted from al-Nawawi a short while ago that there is no disagreement on this question, yet his statement here contradicts that. Most likely he had not seen what he later cited from Qadi Iyad when he wrote the passage in al-Majmu. Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyya likewise records the divergence, so the matter is not unanimously agreed upon; but the established sunnah is sufficient, and reliance on it makes any claim of consensus unnecessary. (1) Some scholars maintain that the particle faʾ in the Prophet’s words “fa-kabbiru” (“then say the takbir”) denotes sequence, meaning the congregation’s takbir is to follow the imam’s. They support this with the marfuʿ hadith of Abu Hurayra: “The imam has only been appointed to be followed, so when he says the takbir, say the takbir; do not say the takbir until he does ….” Abu Dawud (1/99) and Ahmad (2/341) narrated it through Wahib—Musab b. Muhammad—from Abu Salih al-Samman—from Abu Hurayra. The chain is sound; all its transmitters are found in the Six Books except Musab b. Muhammad, whom Ibn Maʿin and others declared reliable, and al-Taqrib says “acceptable.” Al-Hafiz graded the hadith hasan in Fath al-Bari (2/142). Yet the claim that this faʾ requires immediate succession has been contested; al-Hafiz said: