Must al-Fatiha be recited in every rak'a of the prayer?

In the second chapter of his commentary on al-Fatiha, 'on its revelation and its rulings', al-Qurtubi sets out twenty questions, among them whether reciting it in the prayer is required. ¹ He quotes the jurists' views from Ibn Abd al-Barr's al-Tamhid and al-Istidhkar and other works, then gives his preference. ^{2 3}

Al-Qurtubi reports the scholars' agreement that there is no prayer without recitation ⁴, and rejects the report that Umar prayed the sunset prayer without reciting and asked 'how were the bowing and prostration?' as a report of objectionable wording and broken chain. ⁴ He also reports a narration from Malik that recitation is required in no part of the prayer — which some of Malik's followers call objectionable — and that al-Shafi'i held something similar in Iraq about one who forgot it, then withdrew it in Egypt. ^{5 4}

He cites Ibn al-Arabi: the negation in 'there is no prayer for one who does not recite al-Fatiha' can be read as denying completeness or validity, and the stronger reading is the general one, so the stronger narration from Malik is that the prayer of one who does not recite it is void; and whoever reads the words 'do this in all your prayer' as applying to it must repeat the recitation in each rak'a as he repeats the bowing and prostration. ⁶