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What is the Shar'i solution to the problem of praying behind imams who mispronounce the recitation of Al-Fatiha by substituting, adding, or omitting letters, taking into consideration the weakening of Khushu' due to frequent repetition, the difficulty of verifying the correctness of the imam's recitation, and the desire to achieve both Khushu' and the correctness of the prayer?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

We fear that you may be afflicted with waswasa (whispers/obsessive thoughts) concerning this matter, and the statement that 95% of imams recite with errors is a great exaggeration. Many jurists have made concessions regarding letters with close points of articulation due to the difficulty of distinguishing between them, and if the matter is very difficult for you, you may act according to this opinion. If the imam makes a clear error in recitation that jurists do not make concessions for, it is sufficient for you to intend to separate from him and pray individually. We warn against waswasa in this regard.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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