is purely a legal ruling; there is nothing objectionable in combining the two, nor is there any proof that such a combination is blameworthy. He explains this further in his marginal notes entitled Ghayth al-Ghamam—consult them, for, as he himself says, they are among the rarities. Know that our scholars differ over recitation behind the imam and have advanced five views: 1. Omission of the recitation is preferred, not because reciting is considered impermissible; they neither deemed it disliked nor forbidden. 2. It is makruh tahriman (reprehensible to a degree approaching prohibition). This was the choice of Ibn al-Humam, followed by many after him, and explicitly affirmed by a number before him. 3. According to a narration from Muhammad ibn al-Hasan—cited by the authors of al-Hidaya, al-Dhakhira, and others—and another narration from Abu Hanifa (reported by al-Zahidi in al-Mujtaba), reciting al-Fatiha is recommended in silent (sirriya) prayers and disliked in audible (jahriya) prayers. This was also the view preferred by Abu Hafs al-Kabir, one of Muhammad’s principal students, and by other Hanafis. 4. Silence is obligatory, as stated by al-Kaydani. In his discussion of prohibitions he adds that omitting any obligation in prayer is unlawful; from this it follows that he regarded recitation behind the imam as forbidden. 5. Reciting behind the imam invalidates the prayer and renders the worshipper a fasiq (open sinner), as reported in al-Durr (1/508, with Ibn Abidin’s marginalia). Abu al-Hasanat al-Lucknawi lists these five positions in al-Imam (pp. 21–29), citing their well-known Hanafi sources, then remarks: “These are the five opinions within our school; the most feeble and untenable—indeed, the weakest of all positions advanced on this question—is the fifth. It resembles the solitary, anomalous report transmitted by Makhul of Damascus from Abu…"