The Ruling on the Imam Delaying the Iqamah for Prayer
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Yes. May Allah bless you. Is it permissible for the imam to delay the iqamah for the prayers in order to wait for some of the congregation who are habitually late, given that there are two or three people in the mosque waiting for the iqamah, but the imam prolongs the wait?
Answer:
It is not permissible for him to do that. He should consider the people who are present; they have more right to be considered than the one who is absent. Yes.
Yes. May Allah bless you. Is it permissible for the imam to delay the iqamah for the prayers in order to wait for some of the congregation who are habitually late, given that there are two or three people in the mosque waiting for the iqamah, but the imam prolongs the wait?
Answer:
It is not permissible for him to do that. He should consider the people who are present; they have more right to be considered than the one who is absent. Yes.
Source
قناة «إذاعة القرآن الكريم»، نور على الدرب مع معالي الشيخ صالح الفوزان ح7511 — youtube.com (4:41)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.