What is the ruling on reserving places for prayer?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
The questioner asks: What is the ruling on reserving places for prayer in the Grand Mosque by some of the brothers for the tarawih prayer?
Answer:
If a person is present in the mosque and a need arises, such as going to drink or perform wudu, and he wants to return, there is no harm in him placing something in his place to preserve it for him. There is no harm in this. However, if he reserves the place, guards it, and goes to sleep in his house or goes to his work, this is not permissible, because it prevents those who came before him from reaching this place. Yes.
The questioner asks: What is the ruling on reserving places for prayer in the Grand Mosque by some of the brothers for the tarawih prayer?
Answer:
If a person is present in the mosque and a need arises, such as going to drink or perform wudu, and he wants to return, there is no harm in him placing something in his place to preserve it for him. There is no harm in this. However, if he reserves the place, guards it, and goes to sleep in his house or goes to his work, this is not permissible, because it prevents those who came before him from reaching this place. Yes.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، ما حكم حجز أماكن للصلاة؟ — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.