The ruling on advancing ahead of the imam in prayer
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
Here is a questioner asking: What is the ruling on someone who advances ahead of the person in front of him during prayer, by about a meter? Is it to the right of the imam or to his left?
The Shaykh:
It is not permissible to advance ahead of the imam, whether by a meter or a doubt’s worth; rather, he should pray to the right or left of the imam when necessary, or behind him if there is no space to his right or left. A slight advance, by a step or two, does no harm, if Allah wills. But if he advances by an arm’s length or more, then according to a group of scholars, the prayer is invalid. Others said it is valid in cases of necessity, if he advances out of necessity due to the narrowness of the space, it is valid in any case. It is not befitting to advance unless there is a necessity and no space is found. This is what some scholars, such as Malik and a group, said. However, it is befitting for the believer never to advance; because the legislated prayer is behind the imam, or to his right or left when necessary.
The presenter:
Shaykh, may Allah prolong your life. Two people performed Hajj, and then they had a group who were slaughtering. They slaughtered a goat for them. After they left, they had a doubt about the age of the goat. Is it of the specified age that entitles it to be a sacrifice, or not?
The Shaykh:
One year old, and it does not appear to them? It did not appear to them that the slaughter had taken place five years ago.
Here is a questioner asking: What is the ruling on someone who advances ahead of the person in front of him during prayer, by about a meter? Is it to the right of the imam or to his left?
The Shaykh:
It is not permissible to advance ahead of the imam, whether by a meter or a doubt’s worth; rather, he should pray to the right or left of the imam when necessary, or behind him if there is no space to his right or left. A slight advance, by a step or two, does no harm, if Allah wills. But if he advances by an arm’s length or more, then according to a group of scholars, the prayer is invalid. Others said it is valid in cases of necessity, if he advances out of necessity due to the narrowness of the space, it is valid in any case. It is not befitting to advance unless there is a necessity and no space is found. This is what some scholars, such as Malik and a group, said. However, it is befitting for the believer never to advance; because the legislated prayer is behind the imam, or to his right or left when necessary.
The presenter:
Shaykh, may Allah prolong your life. Two people performed Hajj, and then they had a group who were slaughtering. They slaughtered a goat for them. After they left, they had a doubt about the age of the goat. Is it of the specified age that entitles it to be a sacrifice, or not?
The Shaykh:
One year old, and it does not appear to them? It did not appear to them that the slaughter had taken place five years ago.
Source
فتاوى الحج - ٢ — archive.org (16:46)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.