The ruling on placing a special carpet for the imam and decorating the carpets
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Question:
Honorable Shaykh, what is the ruling on placing a separate carpet for the imam in the mosque, especially given the spread of this practice among mosque imams? In fact, you find some of them placing several carpets, one on top of the other, in a way that draws attention? Also, what is the ruling on using decorated carpets, whether for the imam or for the followers?
Answer:
Placing a carpet for the imam is permissible, as it serves as a marker that this is the imam’s place and this is where the imam stands, so that the row knows where to stand. Even if the imam is blind, he benefits from this carpet in his prayer. However, it should not be decorated, because the patterns may distract the worshipper. The carpet in the mosques should be plain, or at least not decorated with patterns that annoy the worshippers, burden them, or distract them. It should be a simple carpet in the mosque so that it does not distract the worshippers. It is not permissible to reserve spots for people; rather, the row belongs to whoever arrives first. Whoever arrives first has the right to the first row, and so on. It is not permissible to reserve spots even if one arrives late, but whoever arrives first has the right.
Honorable Shaykh, what is the ruling on placing a separate carpet for the imam in the mosque, especially given the spread of this practice among mosque imams? In fact, you find some of them placing several carpets, one on top of the other, in a way that draws attention? Also, what is the ruling on using decorated carpets, whether for the imam or for the followers?
Answer:
Placing a carpet for the imam is permissible, as it serves as a marker that this is the imam’s place and this is where the imam stands, so that the row knows where to stand. Even if the imam is blind, he benefits from this carpet in his prayer. However, it should not be decorated, because the patterns may distract the worshipper. The carpet in the mosques should be plain, or at least not decorated with patterns that annoy the worshippers, burden them, or distract them. It should be a simple carpet in the mosque so that it does not distract the worshippers. It is not permissible to reserve spots for people; rather, the row belongs to whoever arrives first. Whoever arrives first has the right to the first row, and so on. It is not permissible to reserve spots even if one arrives late, but whoever arrives first has the right.
Source
أسباب الثبات أمام الفتن — islamhouse.com (41:37)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.