When he finished his prayer, they said: "O Commander of the Faithful, it is as if you lowered your voice." He said: "Did you hear?" They said: "We did not hear any recitation from you." He said: "I did not recite to myself; I was distracted by a caravan that I had prepared for the Levant." Then he said: "There is no prayer without recitation." He said: Then he performed the iqamah, and repeated [the prayer], and the people repeated [the prayer]. The correct [view] is the former, because when Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, was stabbed while in prayer, he took the hand of Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf and brought him forward, so he completed the prayer with them; had their prayer been invalidated, they would have been obliged to restart it. It is not valid to draw an analogy with the omission of a condition, because the condition is more rigorous, as evidenced by the fact that it is not pardoned due to forgetfulness, unlike an invalidator.

Section: If the Imam is overtaken by ritual impurity (hadath), he may appoint a successor to complete the prayer with the people. This is reported from Umar, Ali, Alqama, Ata, Al-Hasan, Al-Nakha'i, Al-Thawri, Al-Awza'i, Al-Shafi'i, and the scholars of opinion (Ashab al-Ra'y). Another narration is attributed to Ahmad that the prayer of the followers is invalidated, because Ahmad said: "I used to uphold the permissibility of succession (istikhlaf), but I became hesitant about it." Abu Bakr said: "Their prayer is invalidated, according to a single narration, because a condition for the validity of the prayer was missing for the Imam, so the followers' prayer was invalidated, just as if he had committed the impurity intentionally." Our view is that when Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, was stabbed, he took the hand of Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf and brought him forward, and he completed the prayer with them. This occurred in the presence of the Companions and others, and no one denied it, so it was a consensus. Ahmad argued based on the statements of Umar and Ali, and their statements, in his view, are a proof (hujjah), so there is no turning away from it. As for Ahmad's statement, "I became hesitant about it," it only indicates pausing, and his pausing once does not invalidate that upon which consensus has been reached. Once this is established, the Imam may appoint a successor to complete the prayer with them, as Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, did. If he does not appoint a successor and the followers bring a man from among them forward who then completes it with them, it is permissible. And if they pray individually, it is permissible.