the verse indicates that the follower must keep silent while the imam is reciting, and even the objector concedes this point—save for al-Fatiha. Yet the verse commands silence whenever the Quran is being recited, and al-Fatiha, the “Mother of the Quran,” is the surah that must be recited in every prayer, the finest surah of the Quran, unmatched by anything revealed in the Torah, the Gospel, the Psalms, or the Furqan. Hence it is inconceivable that the verse should mandate listening to other passages while excluding al-Fatiha, especially given the verse’s unrestricted and universal wording and the fact that al-Fatiha is the most frequently and most famously recited portion of the Quran. Anyone who abandons listening in order to recite al-Fatiha does so only because he assumes that recitation is superior to listening. This assumption is erroneous and contradicts both text and consensus, for the Book and the Sunna instruct the congregant to listen rather than to recite, and the umma unanimously agrees that listening to whatever the imam recites after al-Fatiha is better than reciting additional verses oneself. If reciting what the imam is reciting were truly superior to listening, then the follower’s own recitation beyond al-Fatiha would likewise be superior to his listening—something no scholar has ever claimed. The sole dispute concerns al-Fatiha, due to the belief that it is obligatory or at least recommended for the follower to recite it. The reply is that the benefit a person gains from his own recitation is obtained in even greater measure through listening, as is shown by the fact that listening to the portions recited after al-Fatiha is deemed superior. Were that not so, the better course would obviously be to recite. Since the Book, the Sunna, and consensus all declare listening to be preferable to reciting, it follows that the listener attains a reward greater than that of the reader, and this holds true for al-Fatiha just as it does for any other passage. Therefore one cannot be commanded to perform the lesser act and forbidden the greater. It is established, moreover, that in this situation the imam’s recitation counts for the follower, as affirmed by the overwhelming majority of the early and later scholars among the Companions and the Followers. This is confirmed by the well-known hadith: “Whoever has an imam, the imam’s recitation is his recitation.”