The Distance Between the Imam and the Congregation in Prayer
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
Abu Ibrahim, please go ahead. And may Allah’s mercy and blessings be upon you. And upon you be peace and the mercy of Allah and His blessings. I just wanted to ask you, O long-lived one, if there are three meters between the imam and the congregation, is that permissible, or more than three meters? Thank you, Abu Ibrahim. Please, Shaykh.
The Shaykh:
The cause.
The questioner:
Why, Abu Ibrahim? I see. Why three meters between you? No, by Allah, the imam’s front is forward, I don’t know if… Is there a specific reason? Is there a specific reason? I want to inquire about the matter so we can understand. I ask him, he says to me, why? What is the reason? The Shaykh asks, he says, why three meters between you and… I don’t know, by Allah, he… we spoke on the basis that he said later we will make a row, we will bring the rows forward, but they did not bring them forward or anything. Okay, thank you, Abu Ibrahim. Let us hear from the Honorable Shaykh Salih.
The Shaykh:
Yes, this is permissible if they are able to follow the imam, but it is disliked to have distance between the imam and the congregation, and between the rows and one another. It is disliked to have distance; the rows should be close together and the congregation should be close to the imam. Yes.
The presenter:
Yes, yes, may Allah bless you,
Abu Ibrahim, please go ahead. And may Allah’s mercy and blessings be upon you. And upon you be peace and the mercy of Allah and His blessings. I just wanted to ask you, O long-lived one, if there are three meters between the imam and the congregation, is that permissible, or more than three meters? Thank you, Abu Ibrahim. Please, Shaykh.
The Shaykh:
The cause.
The questioner:
Why, Abu Ibrahim? I see. Why three meters between you? No, by Allah, the imam’s front is forward, I don’t know if… Is there a specific reason? Is there a specific reason? I want to inquire about the matter so we can understand. I ask him, he says to me, why? What is the reason? The Shaykh asks, he says, why three meters between you and… I don’t know, by Allah, he… we spoke on the basis that he said later we will make a row, we will bring the rows forward, but they did not bring them forward or anything. Okay, thank you, Abu Ibrahim. Let us hear from the Honorable Shaykh Salih.
The Shaykh:
Yes, this is permissible if they are able to follow the imam, but it is disliked to have distance between the imam and the congregation, and between the rows and one another. It is disliked to have distance; the rows should be close together and the congregation should be close to the imam. Yes.
The presenter:
Yes, yes, may Allah bless you,
Source
قناة «مكة و المدينة»، 11 فتاوى على الهواء - 08 / 08 / 1433هـ _ الشيخ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com (43:58)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.