The rationale for the prescription of the sutrah: preventing distraction of the one praying
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
And among them is the Shaykh.
The Shaykh:
In. Yes.
The questioner:
Honorable Shaykh, some people have broken the wisdom behind the sutrah so that it does not cut off his worship from mercy. Is this a form of ta'wil (figurative interpretation)?
The Shaykh:
We do not see any alteration in this; it is a correct rationale. One of the benefits of the sutrah is that no one passes by to disturb him, because he is conversing with his Lord and exposing himself to His mercy. If someone passes by, it occupies his mind and thoughts, and he may turn his heart away from his prayer and follow this passerby, thereby depriving himself of mercy and the attention of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) toward him in his prayer. This is correct speech. Yes.
And among them is the Shaykh.
The Shaykh:
In. Yes.
The questioner:
Honorable Shaykh, some people have broken the wisdom behind the sutrah so that it does not cut off his worship from mercy. Is this a form of ta'wil (figurative interpretation)?
The Shaykh:
We do not see any alteration in this; it is a correct rationale. One of the benefits of the sutrah is that no one passes by to disturb him, because he is conversing with his Lord and exposing himself to His mercy. If someone passes by, it occupies his mind and thoughts, and he may turn his heart away from his prayer and follow this passerby, thereby depriving himself of mercy and the attention of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) toward him in his prayer. This is correct speech. Yes.
Source
شرح بلوغ المرام من أدلة الأحكام [ صالح الفوزان ]، باب سترة المصلي — islamhouse.com (1:01:20)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.