Answered by Shaykh Amjad Rasheed
I read that Imam Shafi’i said in Al-Umm that the follower isn’t required to recite the fatiha. Is this true? If so, why does The Reliance of the Traveller say that it is obligatory for a follower to recite this?
In his book al-Muhadhdhab, Imam Shirazi transmits from al-Umm that it is obligatory for a follower to recite the fatiha. Imam Nawawi does not correct him in [h: his commentary on al-Muhadhdhab], al-Majmu (3.363-364), and this is the relied-upon position.
Amjad Rasheed
Amman, Jordan
(Translated by Moustafa Elqabbany and Hamza Karamali)