The Ruling on Straightening the Rows in Prayer
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. He says: It is observed that some of the worshippers are lax in straightening the rows in prayer. Is straightening the rows obligatory, or is it recommended as a matter of perfection? What do you advise regarding this?
Answer:
No, it is obligatory. Straightening the rows is obligatory, and filling the gaps is obligatory. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) would not say the opening takbir until he looked at the rows and straightened them and filled the gaps. This is something that is obligatory. It is not permissible for him to be lax in this. Straightening the rows is part of the completion of the prayer, as stated in the hadith.
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. He says: It is observed that some of the worshippers are lax in straightening the rows in prayer. Is straightening the rows obligatory, or is it recommended as a matter of perfection? What do you advise regarding this?
Answer:
No, it is obligatory. Straightening the rows is obligatory, and filling the gaps is obligatory. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) would not say the opening takbir until he looked at the rows and straightened them and filled the gaps. This is something that is obligatory. It is not permissible for him to be lax in this. Straightening the rows is part of the completion of the prayer, as stated in the hadith.
Source
شرح كتاب المنتقى من أخبار المصطفى صلى الله عليه وسلم، بداية من أبواب صلاة التطوع — islamhouse.com (1:09:05)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.