Advice for the Mosque Imam in the Ramadan Program
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
This is Abu 'Abdullah. Shaykh Salih al-Fawzan says: We love you for the sake of Allah, we make du'a for you, and we take comfort in your guidance, may Allah preserve you. He says: I am the imam of a mosque, and I want the congregation of my mosque to benefit from the blessed days of Ramadan. What daily program do you advise me to follow, especially regarding what to read to them from books?
Answer:
Yes, the mosque imam bears a great responsibility, and he has a great reward if he performs the imamate as required. So, maintain the obligatory prayers, and this is obligatory upon him. Also, maintain the night prayer with tarawih, and perform tahajjud in the last ten days of the month. Recite the Qur'an to them from its beginning to its end, completing it in the last part of the month, whether he completes one recitation or more. However, he must consider the condition of the ma'mum (those praying behind him) and not burden them. On the other hand, he must not waste the month for them through laziness, taking dispensations, or arguing about the tarawih and tahajjud prayers, as is now common among some discouragers. He must not pay attention to this and should continue the night prayer of Ramadan from its beginning to its end. He should be balanced in all nights, not increasing the prayer in one night and decreasing it in another, or delaying the prayer for the rest of the month under the pretext of testing excuses or the like, which is how lazy imams deceive. He should seek the reward, and he has the reward of his prayer and the reward of those who prayed behind him if he did well with them. As for reading from books, he should read from books of admonition and reminder, especially the concise and beneficial ones, such as "Duties of the Month of Ramadan."
These duties are concise, like the abridgment by Shaykh 'Abd al-Rahman ibn Qasim, the abridgment by Shaykh Sulayman al-'Umrī, and "The Pearls and Coral" by Shaykh Ibrahim ibn 'Abd al-Muhsin ibn 'Ubayd. These are beneficial and admonitory books, and they contain rulings as well, including rulings for the night prayer and rulings for fasting. He listens to the ma'mum, and if he has the ability to speak to clarify their meanings and explain the texts from the Book and the Sunnah that appear in them, that is an increase in good. Yes.
The presenter:
May Allah reward you,
This is Abu 'Abdullah. Shaykh Salih al-Fawzan says: We love you for the sake of Allah, we make du'a for you, and we take comfort in your guidance, may Allah preserve you. He says: I am the imam of a mosque, and I want the congregation of my mosque to benefit from the blessed days of Ramadan. What daily program do you advise me to follow, especially regarding what to read to them from books?
Answer:
Yes, the mosque imam bears a great responsibility, and he has a great reward if he performs the imamate as required. So, maintain the obligatory prayers, and this is obligatory upon him. Also, maintain the night prayer with tarawih, and perform tahajjud in the last ten days of the month. Recite the Qur'an to them from its beginning to its end, completing it in the last part of the month, whether he completes one recitation or more. However, he must consider the condition of the ma'mum (those praying behind him) and not burden them. On the other hand, he must not waste the month for them through laziness, taking dispensations, or arguing about the tarawih and tahajjud prayers, as is now common among some discouragers. He must not pay attention to this and should continue the night prayer of Ramadan from its beginning to its end. He should be balanced in all nights, not increasing the prayer in one night and decreasing it in another, or delaying the prayer for the rest of the month under the pretext of testing excuses or the like, which is how lazy imams deceive. He should seek the reward, and he has the reward of his prayer and the reward of those who prayed behind him if he did well with them. As for reading from books, he should read from books of admonition and reminder, especially the concise and beneficial ones, such as "Duties of the Month of Ramadan."
These duties are concise, like the abridgment by Shaykh 'Abd al-Rahman ibn Qasim, the abridgment by Shaykh Sulayman al-'Umrī, and "The Pearls and Coral" by Shaykh Ibrahim ibn 'Abd al-Muhsin ibn 'Ubayd. These are beneficial and admonitory books, and they contain rulings as well, including rulings for the night prayer and rulings for fasting. He listens to the ma'mum, and if he has the ability to speak to clarify their meanings and explain the texts from the Book and the Sunnah that appear in them, that is an increase in good. Yes.
The presenter:
May Allah reward you,
Source
قناة «مكة و المدينة»، 12 فتاوى على الهواء - 06 / 09 / 1433هـ _ الشيخ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com (13:06)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.