The Recitation of the Basmalah Out Loud
Is it from the Sunnah for the imām to say, “Bismillāh al-Raḥmān al-Raḥīm” out loud in al-Fātiḥah or in another sūrah in the prayers where recitation is done out loud? Or does he say it quietly?
Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah, may Allāh, The Most High, have mercy on him, said:
Nothing is established from the Prophet, may the Peace and Blessings of Allāh be upon him, that he used to recite the Basmalah out loud.
There is nothing in the [books of] authentic narrations nor from the [books of] Sunnah, [in reference to] clear authentic aḥādīth [with respect to reciting the Basmalah out loud].
The clear aḥādīth [on reciting the Basmalah out loud], all of them are weak, and even fabricated.
Jāmiʿ al-Masā’il (7/323)
Translated by Abbas Abu Yahya
