All the matters that were innovated after the age when the...

All the matters that were innovated after the age when the act of Mu`awiyah was denied by the Muslims are worthless. Because people have no longer denied them, the innovated things have become circulating and become commonly acceptable. Hence, one must depend upon the deeds of the scholars, not the rulers and their officials.” It may be said that had this matter been baseless, the scholars would have denied it.

To answer this, the scholars did deny this matter when it was practiced by Mu`awiyah who, as a consequence, retreated. But when the authority became in the hands of other tyrannical governors who presided over the holy city of al-Madinah—such as al-Ashdaq, al-Hajjaj, Hubaysh ibn Dalajah, and their likes—the scholars could no longer object to them for fear of their persecution, or other scholars might have objected to such matters but nobody listened to them.

As a result, the others accepted the matter as they though of it as permissible. Although such matters are considered negligence of the Holy Prophet’s instructions, it is lawful to neglect them.

Hence, the scholars accepted it in order to avoid sedition.[^4] Commenting on the following words of `Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr, “Nothing but arrogance has prevented the governors of al-Madinah from reciting the Basmalah in the prayers,” al-Fakhr al-Raziy further said, `Amr ibn Sa`id ibn al-Ashdaq, the first ruler of al-Madinah who canceled the Basmalah in the congregational prayers, did that because he wanted to violate Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr, who decided it, in everything including this act.

Having imitated al-Ashdaq, all the rulers of al-Madinah whom were appointed by the Marwanids canceled the Basmalah . It is thus not unacceptable that `Amr ibn Sa`id al-Ashdaq who besieged Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr[^5] in Makkah and negotiated with him through messengers wanted to violate him in everything including the cancellation of the Basmalah in the congregational prayers.

The same thing is applicable to al-Hajjaj who also besieged him in Makkah after he had demolished the Holy Ka`bah and taken out the sacred Black Stone from there. Moreover, the question of reading the Basmalah audibly or inaudibly is argumentative.