What is the ruling on placing incense in the mosque?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question : He says: What is your opinion regarding the placement of incense in the mosque? Is there any harm in placing it in the burner, or is there a specific condition or matter between it and the one praying?
Answer : There is no harm in this. There is no harm if a person sees the incense burner in front of him, meaning in front of the worshippers, or the heaters known to be used, because there is no evidence for prohibiting it, nor for it being disliked. If we were to say that, we would have to say that the light bulbs above us, which are in front of us, are disliked to face because they are above us and in front of us. Yes, if we suppose that people are in the desert and there is a blazing fire in front of them, then we say the imam should not place it in front of them if they are praying in congregation, so that it does not resemble the fire of the Zoroastrians which they light and then pray to it. As for mere coals or electric strips, there is nothing wrong with them. Yes.
Answer : There is no harm in this. There is no harm if a person sees the incense burner in front of him, meaning in front of the worshippers, or the heaters known to be used, because there is no evidence for prohibiting it, nor for it being disliked. If we were to say that, we would have to say that the light bulbs above us, which are in front of us, are disliked to face because they are above us and in front of us. Yes, if we suppose that people are in the desert and there is a blazing fire in front of them, then we say the imam should not place it in front of them if they are praying in congregation, so that it does not resemble the fire of the Zoroastrians which they light and then pray to it. As for mere coals or electric strips, there is nothing wrong with them. Yes.
Source
ابن العثيمين - جلسة رمضاني مع الشيخ — archive.org (1:21:13)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.
