What is the ruling on passing in front of a person praying in the Sacred Mosque?

The questioner : The questioner asks: What is the ruling on passing in front of a person praying in the Sacred Mosque, given that it is crowded with worshippers?

The Shaykh : The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . Abu al-Nadr, one of the narrators, I do not know if he said forty days, or a month, or a year, but al-Bazzar narrated it saying: "It would be better for him to stand for forty autumns."

Another questioner : Yes, yes, forty.

The Shaykh : Forty years, meaning if you were to stand for forty years waiting for this person to finish his prayer, that would be better for you than passing in front of him, if you only knew what sin you would be committing. So, what place is more deserving of the worshipper being honored than this place? What place is more deserving of the one praying being honored by the one worshipping Allah than this place, which is the Sacred Mosque? I believe there is no place greater than it. Even Allah the Exalted said: Therefore, it is not permissible for a person to pass in front of the one praying in this mosque or in any other, because the hadith is general, .
And allow me, if I ask you to stand for forty minutes, not forty days, nor a month, nor a year, but forty minutes until he finishes. However, someone might say, "I am in a hurry." For example, we say it is possible to walk beside him instead of cutting across in front of him, or to cut across from the side. This is permissible. If you cut across from the side, meaning, for example, the people are facing the Ka'bah, you come from between them and do not cut directly across. And praise be to Allah, if you do this, you will eventually reach a place where you find no one praying, and you can cross there. As for what is reported from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that he used to pray in the Sacred Mosque and men and women would pass in front of him, some scholars have spoken about this hadith and deemed it weak, because it contains unknown narrators, and because if it were authentic, this would only apply to the Tawaf area, and the Tawaf area is the right of the circumambulators. So the circumambulators have the right to pass in front of the worshippers, because, as we mentioned earlier, the worshippers have no right to pray in the place of the circumambulators. Thus, in that case, the ones committing the transgression are those who prayed in the place of the circumambulators. As for those who assume that in the entire Haram, it is not recommended to have a barrier (sutrah) and that one may pass in front of the worshipper, in reality, this is weak. Why? Because Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him and his father) said: . So the statement of Ibn Abbas "to other than a wall" indicates that there was a barrier, but it was not a wall. It is well known that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) used to carry a goat on his travels to pray facing it, as established in the two Sahihs from the hadith of Abu Juhayfa, that he came to . And that was in the middle of the day, at the time of the heat. So the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) came out after performing ablution, and I staked the goat for him to pray facing it. . Abu Juhayfa said: "And people were passing behind it, men, donkeys, and women."
So this is evidence that the Haram is like other places, where it is recommended to have a barrier, and that it is not permissible to pass in front of the worshipper or between him and his barrier. But if the worshipper is praying and has no barrier, what is the respected place that you should not pass through? We say: if he is praying on a carpet, this carpet that is laid out, if you pass behind the carpet, there is no blame on you, because this is just his prayer place. And if he is not praying on a carpet and has no barrier, then his place is up to the place of his prostration. So if you pass behind the place of his prostration, there is no harm in that, because if he has not taken a barrier, he has no right to the place except for the amount he needs for his prayer, which is the place of prostration.

Another questioner : And you have nothing with you.

The Shaykh : As for when the people are behind the imam, there is no harm in a person passing in front of them, even if it is beside their feet, because the imam's barrier is a barrier for those behind him. And the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) used to take a barrier for himself while leading the people, and the Muslims did not take a barrier behind him. And it was mentioned earlier that Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him and his father) passed in front of some of the rows while on his donkey, and no one disapproved of that for him.

Another questioner : The one who starts. I know from where. Perhaps the prayer if the woman passes.

The Shaykh : No, no, it is not.