The ruling on reserving a place in the mosque for an absent person
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
May Allah reward you, Your Eminence, father. The questioner says: One of the brothers who attends the lesson asked me to reserve a seat next to him in the front row, since I arrive about half an hour before him, and his house is far from the mosque. Is it permissible for me to reserve the place in this situation?
Answer:
Reserving a place for an absent person is not permissible. However, if he is present and leaves for a need, and tells you, “Take my place” or “Put your pen there,” or something like that, while he is present and leaves for a need, this is treated as if he is present, and there is no harm. But if he has not come and is delayed, and you reserve the place and prevent the people who are present from it, this is not permissible. Yes.
May Allah reward you, Your Eminence, father. The questioner says: One of the brothers who attends the lesson asked me to reserve a seat next to him in the front row, since I arrive about half an hour before him, and his house is far from the mosque. Is it permissible for me to reserve the place in this situation?
Answer:
Reserving a place for an absent person is not permissible. However, if he is present and leaves for a need, and tells you, “Take my place” or “Put your pen there,” or something like that, while he is present and leaves for a need, this is treated as if he is present, and there is no harm. But if he has not come and is delayed, and you reserve the place and prevent the people who are present from it, this is not permissible. Yes.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، 11 — youtube.com (5:40)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.