The Prayer Behind a Distinguishing Boy Who Has Memorized the Qur'an
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
He says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success.
The Shaykh:
Yes. Yes.
The questioner:
He says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, a man entered the mosque and the prayer had already been called for. When he entered the mosque, he saw a small boy as the imam, so he said, "I will not pray with them; when they finish, I will pray alone." It is known that this small boy has memorized a part of the Qur'an. What is the ruling in this case?
The Shaykh:
He should pray with them. His prayer is the prayer of a distinguishing boy; the prayer of a distinguishing boy is valid, and his leading of the prayer is also valid. His leading is valid if he is the most proficient in recitation among those present and is of the age of discernment. Pray with them, for it is an obligatory prayer, not a voluntary one. A tribe used to pray in the time of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him); a whole tribe would pray behind a boy from among them who memorized from the Qur'an what they did not memorize, in the time of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). And they left them as they were. This is the hadith of 'Umar ibn al-Salimah al-Jarmi. Yes.
He says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success.
The Shaykh:
Yes. Yes.
The questioner:
He says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, a man entered the mosque and the prayer had already been called for. When he entered the mosque, he saw a small boy as the imam, so he said, "I will not pray with them; when they finish, I will pray alone." It is known that this small boy has memorized a part of the Qur'an. What is the ruling in this case?
The Shaykh:
He should pray with them. His prayer is the prayer of a distinguishing boy; the prayer of a distinguishing boy is valid, and his leading of the prayer is also valid. His leading is valid if he is the most proficient in recitation among those present and is of the age of discernment. Pray with them, for it is an obligatory prayer, not a voluntary one. A tribe used to pray in the time of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him); a whole tribe would pray behind a boy from among them who memorized from the Qur'an what they did not memorize, in the time of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). And they left them as they were. This is the hadith of 'Umar ibn al-Salimah al-Jarmi. Yes.
Source
شرح كتاب المنتقى من أخبار المصطفى صلى الله عليه وسلم، بداية من باب الختان — islamhouse.com (1:01:25)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.