What is the advice for one who steps forward to lead people in prayer but does not look behind him to see the rows and the gaps?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, he says: What is your advice to some of the imams of the mosques who step forward to lead the prayer, but do not look at the ma'mum (those praying behind the imam), nor do they care about the rows, nor about the gaps between the rows?
Answer:
This is abandoning the Sunnah (recommended practice); it is a shortcoming on his part. It is abandoning the Sunnah, for he should do as the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) used to do: he would look back and say, "Straighten your rows," "Align your rows," "Close the gaps," "Complete the first row, then the next," and so on, giving them such guidance. Yes.
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, he says: What is your advice to some of the imams of the mosques who step forward to lead the prayer, but do not look at the ma'mum (those praying behind the imam), nor do they care about the rows, nor about the gaps between the rows?
Answer:
This is abandoning the Sunnah (recommended practice); it is a shortcoming on his part. It is abandoning the Sunnah, for he should do as the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) used to do: he would look back and say, "Straighten your rows," "Align your rows," "Close the gaps," "Complete the first row, then the next," and so on, giving them such guidance. Yes.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، [582 -582] ما النصيحة لمن يتقدم ليصلي بالناس ولا يلتفت لورائه ليرى الصفوف والفرج؟ — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.