Answered by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
Walaikum assalam wa rahmatullah,
I pray that this finds you well, and in the best of health and spirits. May Allah grant you all good and success in this life and the next.
It is valid in the Shafii school for the imam to perform tarawih while reciting from a copy of the Qur'an. In mixed communities (where there are many non-Hanafis or where such practices are common, or when this is the practice of one's area), one can follow the position that what counts for the permissibility of praying behind someone is that their prayer be valid on any madhhab. As such, it would be permitted to pray in such a congregation.
This is closer to unity and avoiding fitna, and this is what a number of reliable Hanafi scholars give fatwa on.
[Note, however, that the more famous position of the Hanafi school is that such a congregation would be invalid. This is difficult to apply in mixed communities. And Allah knows best.]
And Allah alone gives success.
Faraz Rabbani
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