The ruling on praying behind an imam who is unable to prostrate
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
May Allah reward you, Honorable Shaykh. This questioner says: If the regular imam is unable to prostrate, how do we, the believers, pray behind him?
Answer:
One does not pray behind someone who is unable to perform a pillar of the prayer. If he is unable to prostrate, one does not pray behind him, unless he is temporarily unable, meaning his excuse is expected to end. However, if he does not prostrate at all and is always unable to prostrate, he does not become an imam. If he is a regular imam, he is removed and does not continue. But the regular imam whose condition is expected to end is an exception, provided these two conditions are met: that he is a regular imam and that his condition is expected to end.
May Allah reward you, Honorable Shaykh. This questioner says: If the regular imam is unable to prostrate, how do we, the believers, pray behind him?
Answer:
One does not pray behind someone who is unable to perform a pillar of the prayer. If he is unable to prostrate, one does not pray behind him, unless he is temporarily unable, meaning his excuse is expected to end. However, if he does not prostrate at all and is always unable to prostrate, he does not become an imam. If he is a regular imam, he is removed and does not continue. But the regular imam whose condition is expected to end is an exception, provided these two conditions are met: that he is a regular imam and that his condition is expected to end.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، [3436/2435] حكم الصلاة خلف إمام عاجز عن السجود - الشيخ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.