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﴿ فَاسْأَلُوا أَهْلَ الذِّكْرِ إِن كُنتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ ﴾

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Is the imamah of an illiterate person valid?

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Question : If a person finds someone like this person, whose mother does not know al-Fatihah, and he prays behind him.

Answer : His prayer is valid because he is equal to him in deficiency; both of them are deficient now. Now, what if the one who can read leads an illiterate person?
Is it valid? Is it valid? That is, the illiterate person becomes the ma'mum, and it is valid. But if he is the imam, it is not valid. This is the position of the madhhab. The second opinion, which is narrated from Ahmad, is that it is valid for the illiterate person to be an imam, for the illiterate person to be an imam. However, this goes against the command of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) when he said, "The people are led by the one among them who is most proficient in reciting the Book of Allah." In any case, the validity of an illiterate person leading one who can read, even if it is narrated from Imam Ahmad, and even if it is based on the principle mentioned earlier—that if one's prayer is valid and his imamah is valid—nevertheless, we should avoid it because it contains an element of contradiction to the saying of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him)
The people should be lead by the one who is most well-Versed in recitation of the Book of Allahيؤم القوم أقرؤهم لكتاب الله
Sunan Ibn Majah 980Sahih (Darussalam)
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Source قناة «فضيلة الشيخ محمد بن صالح العثيمين»، 3279هل تصح إمامة الأمي؟📔 الشرح الممتع على زاد المستقنع - ابن عثيمين — youtube.com

The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.

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