The Shaykh’s warning about the dangers of the follower carrying a mushaf during prayer and its conflict with khushu'.

The Shaykh : And among the causes of khushu' is for a person to leave off what some people do, which is carrying the mushaf and following the imam. Carrying the mushaf while the imam is reading conflicts with khushu' in reality, and it has several dangers. The first danger is that it prevents you from seeing the place of your prostration, and it is prescribed for a person who is praying to look at the place of his prostration, and the one holding the mushaf does not look at it. Second, it prevents you from following the Sunnah in placing the hands, because it is prescribed for the one praying in the state of standing, before bowing and after bowing, to place his right hand over his left hand, and the one who has taken the mushaf is unable to do that, as is well known. The third danger is that it involves movement without need, and movement in prayer is disliked because it is fidgeting, and this involves moving the mushaf in turning it, carrying it, and placing it, which is movement without need. Fourth, it occupies his sight with many movements, so he looks at the verses, every word, every letter, every movement, every line, and every page. For this reason, some scholars held that if a person praying reads from the mushaf, his prayer is invalid, and they attributed this to the abundance of movements. And this follower, without doubt, has a great abundance of eye movements. Fifth, I feel that the one who follows the imam loses from his heart the fact that he is in prayer, meaning he is occupied with following the imam instead of being in prayer. He feels as if there is a man in front of him reading, or as if there is a man in front of him reading and he is following him and holding it for him, as if he is in prayer. But if a person has placed his right hand over his left, humbled himself to Allah, and placed his gaze at the place of his prostration, he will find a return to Allah and khushu' that he does not find when turning this mushaf. For this reason, I advise my brothers to leave this habit, except if need calls for it, such as if the imam is not a memorizer and asks some of the followers to be behind him to follow him so as to correct his error. This is a need, and there is no harm in it.