The Ruling on Crowding the Prayers in the First Row at the Iqamah
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
He says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. In some mosques, when the iqamah is called, some of the ma'mum (those praying behind the imam) squeeze into the first row, which causes the row to become cramped and prevents the worshippers from being in a state of khushu' (humility) in prayer. What is your opinion, and do you have any words on this?
Answer:
It is not permissible, because he is praying in a narrow row that squeezes the other worshippers. He should go to the second or third row. May Allah expand it for him, and all praise is due to Allah. He should not squeeze the worshipper. If he finds a gap where there is no squeezing, he may enter it; otherwise, he should go to the second or third row. Yes, or he should wait until someone comes to stand with him behind the row. Yes.
He says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. In some mosques, when the iqamah is called, some of the ma'mum (those praying behind the imam) squeeze into the first row, which causes the row to become cramped and prevents the worshippers from being in a state of khushu' (humility) in prayer. What is your opinion, and do you have any words on this?
Answer:
It is not permissible, because he is praying in a narrow row that squeezes the other worshippers. He should go to the second or third row. May Allah expand it for him, and all praise is due to Allah. He should not squeeze the worshipper. If he finds a gap where there is no squeezing, he may enter it; otherwise, he should go to the second or third row. Yes, or he should wait until someone comes to stand with him behind the row. Yes.
Source
المنتقى من أخبار سيد المرسلين [47] — alfawzan.live (1:09:01)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.