Prostration of forgetfulness behind a Hanafi imam

In The Name of Allah, Most Merciful and Compassionate

If a person’s Imam is Hanafi, and thus says salams before prostrating for forgetfulness, then the follower still prostrates prior to his own salams based on his belief. The follower does not wait for the Imam in order to prostrate with him because he ceased following the Imam when he said salams. This is the case if the follower began with the Imam. If the follower came late and missed some of the prayer with the Imam, then he stops following the Imam when he says salams, completes the prayer by himself and does the forgetfulness prostration at the end of his prayer.[1]

This is the jurisprudence of the question, but remember that our Imams taught us much more than just jurisprudence. One of the things they taught us is etiquette (adab) with other schools of thought. An example of this is when Imam Shafi’i lead the morning prayer near Imam Abu Hanifa’s grave, Allah have mercy on both of them, and did not recite the qunut. When asked about this he explained that is was out of adab with the one in that grave. Taking this into account as well as the sensitivities of the Muslims, we would only advise doing this in an environment that consisted of predominantly knowledgeable Shafi’is. Otherwise it would be wise to just intend following Imam Abu Hanifa for that prayer and prostrate the same way the Imam does. This should be valid in the Hanifi School as long as one does all the sunnas of ablution and prayer in the Shafi’i School. And Allah knows best and He alone gives success (tawfiq).

[1]This is summarized from Mughni and what is in Tuhfa and Nihaya is the same, see: Muhammad Bin al-Khatib al-Shirbini, Mughni al-Muhtaj Ila Ma’rifah Ma’ani Alfath al-Minhaj (Beruit, Dar al-Ma’rifah, 1997), 1:322.