Praying behind an imam whose creed you do not know, and the imam's absence from the mosque
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
In his second question, the Shaykh says: Perhaps we ask in another way. It is very common in our local mosques now, unfortunately, that the mu'adhdhin or the imam leaves for their work, perhaps personal work, and the congregation of the mosque is forced to rely on the mosque worker, if he has a beard and perhaps memorizes the Qur'an, to lead the prayer. This is common in local mosques. The congregation is forced not to pray in this mosque, especially the elderly, who say, "We know nothing about this man's creed," so they change the mosque where they pray to preserve their creed or something similar. When traveling abroad, such matters are naturally common, and you know nothing about the imam's creed. What is the ruling on that?
Answer:
We said that the default for a Muslim is integrity and goodness. As long as you know nothing about him and he is praying, pray with him, pray behind him. This is the default. If you know that his creed is corrupted, do not pray behind him. But as long as you know nothing and he is praying, if the people are doing well, do well with them; pray with them. This is in general terms. As for the mosque you mentioned, it has two cases. The first case is that this is incidental; this thing is incidental, the imam is absent, and the guard prays. There is no harm in praying, and praise be to Allah, as long as we do not know that his creed is corrupted. The default for a Muslim is integrity. However, if the imam makes it a constant habit to be absent from the mosque, it is obligatory for the people of the mosque congregation to complain about him to the office of the Endowments and Mosque Affairs. Mosques have supervisors and an office for review. They go to the office or write a letter that goes with someone stating, "So-and-so, the imam of our mosque, is frequently absent, and the one who leads us is the mosque guard or the sweeper." The office will not object to dismissing this imam and replacing him with someone else. That is, they have instructions in this regard that they do not allow anyone to lead in the mosque except with their permission and their knowledge of the person. Yes.
The presenter:
Peace be upon you. May Allah reward you with good, O Shaykh, and may Allah reward you. Yes, may Allah reward you with good and reward you. Yes.
In his second question, the Shaykh says: Perhaps we ask in another way. It is very common in our local mosques now, unfortunately, that the mu'adhdhin or the imam leaves for their work, perhaps personal work, and the congregation of the mosque is forced to rely on the mosque worker, if he has a beard and perhaps memorizes the Qur'an, to lead the prayer. This is common in local mosques. The congregation is forced not to pray in this mosque, especially the elderly, who say, "We know nothing about this man's creed," so they change the mosque where they pray to preserve their creed or something similar. When traveling abroad, such matters are naturally common, and you know nothing about the imam's creed. What is the ruling on that?
Answer:
We said that the default for a Muslim is integrity and goodness. As long as you know nothing about him and he is praying, pray with him, pray behind him. This is the default. If you know that his creed is corrupted, do not pray behind him. But as long as you know nothing and he is praying, if the people are doing well, do well with them; pray with them. This is in general terms. As for the mosque you mentioned, it has two cases. The first case is that this is incidental; this thing is incidental, the imam is absent, and the guard prays. There is no harm in praying, and praise be to Allah, as long as we do not know that his creed is corrupted. The default for a Muslim is integrity. However, if the imam makes it a constant habit to be absent from the mosque, it is obligatory for the people of the mosque congregation to complain about him to the office of the Endowments and Mosque Affairs. Mosques have supervisors and an office for review. They go to the office or write a letter that goes with someone stating, "So-and-so, the imam of our mosque, is frequently absent, and the one who leads us is the mosque guard or the sweeper." The office will not object to dismissing this imam and replacing him with someone else. That is, they have instructions in this regard that they do not allow anyone to lead in the mosque except with their permission and their knowledge of the person. Yes.
The presenter:
Peace be upon you. May Allah reward you with good, O Shaykh, and may Allah reward you. Yes, may Allah reward you with good and reward you. Yes.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، محاضرات في العقيدة والدعوة-38-قضايا فقهية - 02|صالح الفوزان|العام|كبار العلماء — youtube.com (6:12)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.