Answered by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
In the Hanafi School, would the prayer be invalidated if one were to intentionally recite fatiha behind the imam, both in silent and loud prayer?
Walaikum assalam wa rahmatullah,
No. Prayer is only invalidated by the omission of an obligatory (fard) element of the prayer, whether a condition or integral.
Reciting behind the imam is prohibitively disliked (makruh tahriman) in the Hanafi school, in both loud and silent prayers. [Ibn Abidin, Radd al-Muhtar; Shurunbulali, Imdad al-Fattah Sharh Nur al-Idah; Ibn al-Humam, Fath al-Qadir Sharh al-Hidaya]
[Search archives at www.sunnipath.com for answers explaining the legal reasoning and proofs behind this ruling. Shaykh Abdurrahman ibn Yusuf’s excellent work Fiqh al-Imam: Key Proofs in Hanafi Fiqh is a must-read for every serious Hanafi seeking understanding. See: www.whitethreadpress.com]
Doing something prohibitively disliked is sinfulso one must repent from one’s error or mistakeand makes one’s prayer deficient but not invalid.
Within the time, it is necessary (wajib) to repeat such prayers to lift the deficiency.
After the time exits, the stricter and stronger position is that it remains necessary (wajib) to repeat such prayers.
There is a dispensation, which is valid to followparticularly for those with numerous such errors in the past–, which is that after the time exits it is no longer necessary (wajib) to repeat such prayers. The need to repent remains, however.
The way of moderation is to apply the dispensation for numerous past errors, while following the stricter positionthat it is necessary to repeat prayers in which something prohibitively disliked was done, even after the time exitsfor recent errors.
If one is prone to having doubts and misgivings (waswasa), it is an error to follow the way of caution and strictness: this simply aggravates one’s problems. Rather, one should learn the right way of doing something, in a simple and clear manner, and then simply act on this, ignoring one’s doubts. The way of caution for the one with waswasa is to ignore their misgivings and ignore trying to follow stricter and more precautionary ways that may appear to them, until they rid themselves of this problem. [For more detailed discussions on the fiqh of dealing with doubts and misgivings, search the archives at www.sunnipath.com for certainty doubt misgivings’]
And Allah alone gives success.