Prayer behind an innovator imam?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
May Allah reward you. The questioner says: The imam of a mosque practices sorcery, denies some of the Sunnah, and insults those he sees doing some of the Sunnah. What is the ruling on praying behind him? And if I pray with him out of necessity, do I have to repeat the prayer, or is it valid?
Answer:
We do not know what this sorcery is. If he practices magic, that is not permissible, because magic is disbelief and the magician is a disbeliever. He, Glorified and Exalted is He, said:[Al-Baqarah 2:102] [Al-Baqarah 2:102] Magic is disbelief, whether learning it or teaching it. If by sorcery he means that he practices magic, then he is not fit to be an imam, because his prayer is not valid, and he is a magician, and the prayer of anyone behind him is not valid.
May Allah reward you. The questioner says: The imam of a mosque practices sorcery, denies some of the Sunnah, and insults those he sees doing some of the Sunnah. What is the ruling on praying behind him? And if I pray with him out of necessity, do I have to repeat the prayer, or is it valid?
Answer:
We do not know what this sorcery is. If he practices magic, that is not permissible, because magic is disbelief and the magician is a disbeliever. He, Glorified and Exalted is He, said:
but the devils disbelieved, teaching people magic and that which was revealed to the two angels at Babylon, Harut and Marut. But the two angels do not teach anyone unless they say
وَلَٰكِنَّ الشَّيَاطِينَ كَفَرُوا يُعَلِّمُونَ النَّاسَ السِّحْرَ وَمَا أُنزِلَ عَلَى الْمَلَكَيْنِ بِبَابِلَ هَارُوتَ وَمَارُوتَ وَمَا يُعَلِّمَانِ مِنْ أَحَدٍ حَتَّىٰ يَقُولَاWe are a trial, so do not disbelieve
إِنَّمَا نَحْنُ فِتْنَةٌ فَلَا تَكْفُرْ
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، الصلاة خلف الإمام المبتدع؟ للشيخ الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.