A single reciter before the Friday prayer
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
And other than the honor, may Allah preserve you, some people went ahead with this, saying that in these lands, a person should not be replaced or should not enter, and the people forgive it, and they have a proof that it is better. They wanted to ask some scholars, so I seek refuge in Allah from the honorable believers.
The Shaykh:
This has not been reported from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), as far as we know, nor from any of his Companions, meaning it is not established from the Companions or the Rightly Guided Caliphs that they would appoint a reciter before the Friday prayer. What is reported is that they would gather and wait for the Friday prayer and recite the Qur'an, each person reciting the Qur'an for himself, each one reciting the Qur'an; they were not listening to a single reciter.
So this practice is among the religious innovations (bid'ah). It also deprives people of reciting the Qur'an and deprives people of the voluntary prayer; it disturbs them. This is not from the guidance of the Salaf; this is not from the guidance of the Salaf. And whoever issues a fatwa on this is required to provide evidence. The issue is not about the existence of the fatwa, but about the evidence. If someone issues a fatwa on something, he is required to provide evidence. If he brings evidence, otherwise his fatwa is considered erroneous.
And other than the honor, may Allah preserve you, some people went ahead with this, saying that in these lands, a person should not be replaced or should not enter, and the people forgive it, and they have a proof that it is better. They wanted to ask some scholars, so I seek refuge in Allah from the honorable believers.
The Shaykh:
This has not been reported from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), as far as we know, nor from any of his Companions, meaning it is not established from the Companions or the Rightly Guided Caliphs that they would appoint a reciter before the Friday prayer. What is reported is that they would gather and wait for the Friday prayer and recite the Qur'an, each person reciting the Qur'an for himself, each one reciting the Qur'an; they were not listening to a single reciter.
So this practice is among the religious innovations (bid'ah). It also deprives people of reciting the Qur'an and deprives people of the voluntary prayer; it disturbs them. This is not from the guidance of the Salaf; this is not from the guidance of the Salaf. And whoever issues a fatwa on this is required to provide evidence. The issue is not about the existence of the fatwa, but about the evidence. If someone issues a fatwa on something, he is required to provide evidence. If he brings evidence, otherwise his fatwa is considered erroneous.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، 12/7 شرح كتاب لمعة الاعتقاد : الشريط السابع — youtube.com (3:44)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.