The Imamate of the Smoker and the One Who Shaves His Beard
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
A man who smokes and a man who shaves his beard: which of them is valid as an imam?
Answer:
Neither this one nor that one; neither the smoker nor the shaver. If there is someone else available, choose them. But if they are all smokers or all shavers, choose the best among them; the one who is closer is given priority. However, if there is a non-shaver in the congregation and a non-smoker in the congregation, the one who is better among the good ones, the one who recites best, is given priority over the smoker and the shaver. Yes.
A man who smokes and a man who shaves his beard: which of them is valid as an imam?
Answer:
Neither this one nor that one; neither the smoker nor the shaver. If there is someone else available, choose them. But if they are all smokers or all shavers, choose the best among them; the one who is closer is given priority. However, if there is a non-shaver in the congregation and a non-smoker in the congregation, the one who is better among the good ones, the one who recites best, is given priority over the smoker and the shaver. Yes.
Source
ندوات الجامع الكبير مع الأسئلة - ٧٥ — archive.org (32:49)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.