Prayer behind an imam who recites incorrectly

Question

Nowadays the imams of mosques recite the Qur’an incorrectly in prayer: for example, in some places they add an alif or drop one, and they also pronounce certain letters in place of others because their points of articulation (makharij) are close. Even in Surah al-Fatiha, when pronouncing the «ض» in «غير المغضوب عليهم ولا الضالين», they strain so much that it sounds like «د» — a sound that can be counted neither as dal nor as dad. What is the ruling on the prayer in all these cases: is it valid or not?

Answer

Because of the scarcity of knowledge and the prevalence of ignorance, the jurists have shown leniency in many issues, and among them are the errors of the reciter (zallat al-qari). Where there is an alteration in the vowelling (i‘rab)

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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