Prompting the imam in the Friday prayer

Question

An imam leads the Friday prayer (jumu'a); he is neither a scholar nor a hafiz of the Qur'an — he has merely memorised a few suras. In the Friday prayer, in the last rak'a, the imam added a sura from the thirtieth juz' which had more than three verses, and after three verses he began to confuse similar passages (mutashabih). After three times one muqtadi, who was a hafiz of the Qur'an, prompted him, and the imam, reading on, completed the prayer.

Answer

If the imam gets stuck or confuses similar passages, the muqtadi should not hasten to prompt, so that the imam may find [the continuation] himself, or perform ruku', or recite from another place; prompting hastily is makruh.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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