What is the ruling on reserving a place in the mosque?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
What is the ruling on the following? One person says that some of the brothers come here early and reserve places for one another in the front rows, while we come from far away and find nothing but the back.
Answer:
Rather, be early, be early, so that you get ahead of these people. We have answered regarding reserving places in the mosque several times. We said: If a person is in the mosque and goes to perform wudu, and he has no need to go to his car or his house, and he places something in his place, there is no harm in that, because he is considered present, because he is considered present. But the one who reserves a place and leaves, and does not come back until late, and then leaves to sleep or to attend to his affairs, that is not permissible. That is not permissible.
What is the ruling on the following? One person says that some of the brothers come here early and reserve places for one another in the front rows, while we come from far away and find nothing but the back.
Answer:
Rather, be early, be early, so that you get ahead of these people. We have answered regarding reserving places in the mosque several times. We said: If a person is in the mosque and goes to perform wudu, and he has no need to go to his car or his house, and he places something in his place, there is no harm in that, because he is considered present, because he is considered present. But the one who reserves a place and leaves, and does not come back until late, and then leaves to sleep or to attend to his affairs, that is not permissible. That is not permissible.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، ما حكم حجز مكان في المسجد؟ للشيخ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.