He also wrote: “The Zahiri school considers it obligatory for everyone who prays.” Al-Shawkani (2/187) comments: “The obvious sense of the hadith makes it obligatory only for the follower (maʾmum), and even then only when the imam himself pronounces amin; for the imam and for one praying alone it is merely recommended.” Hafiz Abu Zurʿa al-ʿIraqi (2/266) observes: “This hadith refutes the Imamiyya, who claim that saying amin during the prayer invalidates it; in doing so they contradict the unanimous agreement of both early and later scholars, and they have no evidence for their view—sound or weak.” Al-Khattabi (1/224) explains: “The meaning of the hadith is: say it together with the imam so that your amin coincides with his. The wording, ‘When the imam says amin, then say amin,’ does not contradict this and does not imply postponing it until after him; it is like saying, ‘When the commander sets out, set out,’ i.e., once he begins to depart, prepare so that your departure coincides with his. This is clarified by the other hadith: ‘The imam says amin and the angels say amin; whoever’s amin coincides with that of the angels will have his past sins forgiven.’ Hence the two amins should occur simultaneously in the hope of forgiveness.” (1) The hadith also recommends amin for the solitary worshipper and the follower alike, because of the inclusive wording “one of you.” The author of al-Mufhim writes: “There is consensus that the lone worshipper always says amin, and that the imam and the follower say it in prayers in which the recitation is silent.” The same is recorded in Tarh al-Tathrib (2/267). (2) The additional clause “and what is to come” is an anomalous and weak insertion in this hadith, as Ibn Hajar shows in Fath (2/211), and the same applies to the wording “He is forgiven who is in the mosque.”