The ruling on a person leading the prayer whom the congregation dislikes

Question:
The questioner says: Honorable Shaykh, a man does not lead the people in prayer while they dislike him. I am the imam of a mosque, and I have a disagreement with the mu'adhdhin and the group in the first row. What is the standard for this dislike? And what do you advise the mu'adhdhin and the imam of the mosque, who are paid for this role, to do in this matter?

Answer:
First, we advise the imam, the mu'adhdhin, and the mosque congregation to reconcile and be tolerant with one another, to greet one another with the salam, and to forgive one another, even if one has wronged the other, he should forgive him. This is the first thing: tolerance among them. The second thing, as for their dislike of him, it has two cases. The first case is that they dislike him rightfully, due to his negligence in his religion.
In this case, he does not lead them, because there is a warning against the one who leads a group that dislikes him, for his prayer does not rise to Allah the Exalted if they dislike him rightfully due to a defect in his religion or his creed. However, if their dislike of him is merely personal and emotional, and he has not committed any defect in his religion or creed, then this is an unjustified dislike and it has no effect; he continues to lead the prayer. But as we mentioned, with the aim of reconciling the ma'mum, meaning they should be forgiving with one another; they forgive and he forgives, because they are brothers and they are in one of the houses of Allah, and they are performing the obligation of Allah, so they reconcile among themselves. Yes.