Reserving a place in the mosque by placing belongings
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
I say: If a person comes to the mosque and finds an empty spot, and places his belongings or his book in that spot, and wants to perform wudu, and at the same time the place for wudu is connected to the mosque, is there any harm in this?
The Shaykh:
Yes, he starts with the illness first. Start with the wudu. Then he comes to us. Then he comes to us. Meaning, he does not place anything. He does not reserve a grave. Allah’s reckoning is upon you. Even if he is the mu’adhdhin. The mu’adhdhin does not need to reserve a spot. If you come, then [you are] in the middle of the row, or in the second row, or it is not easy for him to call the adhan at all times, [he is] behind the imam. May Allah reward you with good.
I say: If a person comes to the mosque and finds an empty spot, and places his belongings or his book in that spot, and wants to perform wudu, and at the same time the place for wudu is connected to the mosque, is there any harm in this?
The Shaykh:
Yes, he starts with the illness first. Start with the wudu. Then he comes to us. Then he comes to us. Meaning, he does not place anything. He does not reserve a grave. Allah’s reckoning is upon you. Even if he is the mu’adhdhin. The mu’adhdhin does not need to reserve a spot. If you come, then [you are] in the middle of the row, or in the second row, or it is not easy for him to call the adhan at all times, [he is] behind the imam. May Allah reward you with good.
Source
شرح كتاب المنتقى من أخبار المصطفى صلى الله عليه وسلم [ الشرح الأول ]، بداية من باب التحفظ من الغيبة واللغو وما يقول إذا شتم — islamhouse.com (38:58)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.