The Ruling on Praying Behind Someone Other Than the One in Authority or an Open Sinner
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah reward you, is praying behind the one in authority specific to those in authority, or is it permissible to pray behind an open sinner who is not the one in authority?
Answer:
As for the one in authority, this is by scholarly consensus, as you heard, and it is the position of the people of the Sunnah and the community. As for someone other than the one in authority, this is a matter of scholarly disagreement. It was said that the prayer behind an open sinner is not valid, and this is the position of the Hanbali school, as found in the text of al-Zad. The second opinion is that the prayer is valid behind every Muslim; whoever’s prayer is valid, his leading of the prayer is valid. This is likely the stronger position, if Allah wills.
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah reward you, is praying behind the one in authority specific to those in authority, or is it permissible to pray behind an open sinner who is not the one in authority?
Answer:
As for the one in authority, this is by scholarly consensus, as you heard, and it is the position of the people of the Sunnah and the community. As for someone other than the one in authority, this is a matter of scholarly disagreement. It was said that the prayer behind an open sinner is not valid, and this is the position of the Hanbali school, as found in the text of al-Zad. The second opinion is that the prayer is valid behind every Muslim; whoever’s prayer is valid, his leading of the prayer is valid. This is likely the stronger position, if Allah wills.
Source
شرح لمعة الاعتقاد [ صالح الفوزان ]، بداية من قوله : ونرى الحج والجهاد ماضيين مع طاعة كل إمام — islamhouse.com (54:02)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.