The prayer of the congregation sitting behind a sitting imam
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
He says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, if the imam prays the obligatory prayer sitting down, do the people behind him pray sitting down?
Answer:
If he is the regular imam and he is afflicted with a temporary illness that is expected to end, there is nothing wrong with him praying sitting down and the people praying behind him sitting down, just as the Companions did behind the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) when he was ill. An illness struck his leg that prevented him from praying with the congregation. They visited him and prayed with him. They stood, and he gestured to them to sit, so they sat and completed the prayer with him sitting down. However, if this imam’s illness is permanent and not expected to end, it is not permissible for him to be an imam; his imamate ends, and he is replaced by someone else. Yes.
He says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, if the imam prays the obligatory prayer sitting down, do the people behind him pray sitting down?
Answer:
If he is the regular imam and he is afflicted with a temporary illness that is expected to end, there is nothing wrong with him praying sitting down and the people praying behind him sitting down, just as the Companions did behind the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) when he was ill. An illness struck his leg that prevented him from praying with the congregation. They visited him and prayed with him. They stood, and he gestured to them to sit, so they sat and completed the prayer with him sitting down. However, if this imam’s illness is permanent and not expected to end, it is not permissible for him to be an imam; his imamate ends, and he is replaced by someone else. Yes.
Source
شرح كتاب المنتقى من أخبار المصطفى صلى الله عليه وسلم، بداية من باب ما يقول إذا فرغ من وضوئه — islamhouse.com (1:04:07)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.