Going into prostration without ruku‘ and then rising

Question

Our imam recited qunut al-nazila in the Fajr prayer and then went into prostration without performing ruku‘. During the prostration one of the followers (muqtadis) said loudly that the ruku‘ had not been done; so [the imam] came back into ruku‘, then prostrated, and after a short tashahhud performed sajda al-sahw. Has the prayer been fulfilled by doing it this way? And is the prayer of the follower who said that the ruku‘ had not been done valid or not?

Answer

The prayer of the follower who spoke to the imam in this way is not valid. If, through his saying this, the imam himself also remembered that the ruku‘ had not been done, and rose on the basis of his own recollection, performed the ruku‘ and the rest, and did sajda al-sahw, then the imam’s prayer is valid, and so is the prayer of all the remaining followers.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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