Our later scholars, however, dissented and said: “The imam and everyone else should say Amin silently.” In reality they have no proof for this except Shuʿbah’s report, “and he lowered his voice,” which—as you have seen—is erroneous, contradicted by transmitters who are both more reliable and more numerous, and incompatible with all the hadiths already cited. For this reason Ibn al-Humam could only remark (p. 307): “If the matter were left to me, I would reconcile the two narrations by interpreting the ‘lowering’ report as merely avoiding a harsh, percussive delivery, and the ‘raising the voice’ report as pronouncing it with an elevated but measured tone.” He then cited the hadith of Abu Hurayrah, “so that the mosque quaked,” and explained: “Its quaking occurs when Amin is said with a resonant modulation—that is what produces the humming sound observed in mosques—whereas blunt, forceful striking of the word does not. On this basis one should say: it is improper to utter Amin with the sharp, pounding style adopted by some people.” End quote. Notice, starting with his words “If the matter were left to me…,” the caution he shows in avoiding any open contradiction of the Ḥanafī school—something we do not approve of in him or in other exacting scholars. Among our scholars, Abu al-Hasanat al-Lakhnawi openly proclaimed the truth, saying: “Fairness dictates that the audible recital is strongly supported by the evidence.” Ibn Amir Hajj hinted at the same in his work Al-Halbah, where he said …, then quoted his words, which include: “Our shaykhs upheld what agrees with the madhhab, yet the discerning reader will notice there is still something wanting.” End quote. Issue Three: Should the followers behind the imam also recite Amin aloud? The matter is disputed. Ishaq—as mentioned earlier—held that they should, and this is al-Shafiʿi’s early position, as stated in Fath (2/212) and elsewhere: “and this is the view on which the legal verdict is given.” Al-Rafiʿi said: “Most scholars relate two opinions; the sounder is that the followers pronounce it aloud.” I add: al-Nawawi said in his commentary on Sahih Muslim: