and there is likewise a report from Abu Saʿid, cited earlier among the first narrations. All of these hadiths are sound, and those who restrict the *tahmid* (saying “Rabbana, laka al-hamd”) to the follower alone—namely, the scholars just mentioned—cite them as proof. They also argue from them that the follower should not say: “Samiʿa Allahu liman hamidah.” Al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar writes in Fath al-Bari (2/143): “There is nothing in the wording that requires such a prohibition, for silence about a matter does not necessitate abandoning it. What the wording does imply is that the follower says, ‘Rabbana, laka al-hamd’ immediately after the imam says, ‘Samiʿa Allahu liman hamidah.’ As for preventing the imam from saying, ‘Rabbana wa laka al-hamd,’ that is baseless, because it is established that the Prophet combined the two formulas.” I say: By the same token, barring the follower from pronouncing the *tasmiʿ* (“Samiʿa Allahu liman hamidah”) is also unfounded, in light of the Prophet’s general instruction, “Pray as you have seen me pray,” and the subsequent hadith, “The imam was appointed only to be followed.” Part of following him is to repeat what he says, except where a specific proof makes an exception—such as refraining from Qurʾan recitation behind the imam in audible prayers, as explained earlier. For this reason al-Khattabi said in al-Maʿalim (1/210): “Although this additional phrase—the *tasmiʿ*—is not explicitly mentioned in the hadith text, the imam is nevertheless commanded to say it. The hadith, ‘The imam was appointed only to be followed,’ applies to all of his words and actions. The imam therefore combines the two utterances, and so does the follower. The purpose of the wording cited in the hadith was merely to synchronize the supplication and to align the two statements so that the follower may share in the imam’s invocation—namely, his saying, ‘Samiʿa Allahu liman hamidah.’ It was not intended as a detailed description of how to supplicate or as a demand to recite everything that may be said at that juncture, for that has already been sufficiently clarified elsewhere.”