The Questions: What is the ruling on racing ahead of the imam in prayer?

The questioner : The questioner asks: What is the ruling on racing ahead of the imam?

The Shaykh : In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
Racing ahead of the imam is forbidden, based on the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): This is a warning for the one who races ahead of the imam. It is also established from him (peace and blessings be upon him) that he said: The hadith. And on this occasion, I would like to say that the ma'mum (one praying behind the imam) with his imam has four states: racing ahead, matching, following, and lagging behind. How many? Four states: racing ahead, matching, following, and lagging behind. Racing ahead means starting an action before the imam, and this is forbidden. If it is the takbir of ihram, his prayer is not valid at all, and he must repeat the prayer from the beginning. Matching means being in sync with the imam: bowing with his bowing, prostrating with his prostration, and rising with his rising. The apparent evidence indicates that this is also forbidden, based on his saying: Some scholars hold that it is disliked and not forbidden, except in the takbir of ihram; if he matches his imam in that, his prayer is not valid and he must repeat it. The third is following: performing the actions of the prayer after the imam without lagging behind. This is the prescribed condition; this is what is prescribed. The fourth is lagging behind, which is contrary to what is prescribed. For example, the imam is standing while you are prostrating, and you remain calling upon Allah. This is a mistake because you are now bound to your imam. Even if you say, "I wish to make du'a' in prostration, and the servant is closest to his Lord when he is prostrating," and the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said regarding prostration: We say: No, as long as you are bound to an imam, when he rises, you rise. I hear that some people lag behind their imam in prostration, calling upon Allah, and this is a mistake on their part. The prescribed action is to rise immediately when your imam rises, so that you are matching him, not lagging behind him. Based on this, I advise my brothers who pray with the imam in the obligatory prayer or the voluntary prayer to warn them against racing ahead of the imam, because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) threatened regarding that. Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman saw a man praying and racing ahead of his imam, so he said: .