The ruling on the imam standing in the middle with the row behind him in congregational prayer?

The Shaykh : ... This is what appears to be the case, and Allah knows best. Although there is no authentic and explicit hadith regarding this, it is possible to derive it from some of the hadiths. For example, the hadith of Jabir ibn 'Abd Allah al-Ansari (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was praying one time, and a man from the Companions named Jabbar came and stood to his right (peace and blessings be upon him). Then Jabir came and stood to his left, so the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) pushed them behind him like this. If we look at this hadith, it allows us to understand the validity of that hadith in terms of its meaning, even if it is weak in terms of its chain. And that is his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): . So there is no doubt that the meaning of this hadith, if we look at the hadith of Jabir and Jabbar, remains a concept that is acted upon in terms of its implication. And there is a hadith with a weak chain mentioned by al-Hafiz al-Mundhiri in "al-Targhib" that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) saw one day that the right side of the row had increased, and he mentioned a phrase I do not remember now, such as sending blessings upon those who came to pray on the left side... But the truth is that there is no explicit hadith in this matter except what can be derived from the hadith of Jabir.

The questioner : There is a hadith that means the angels send greetings to the right sides of the rows, ?

The Shaykh : Yes, the wording of the hadith is weak, but this does not mean that we should neglect our intention in the meaning that a person stands behind the imam and then the whole row goes to the right and no one stands on the left. Rather, it contains an encouragement to prioritize the right side. And this is naturally supported by some of the general hadiths, but we should not understand from it what I mentioned earlier regarding the hadith of Jabir... about standing in the middle behind the imam, so that it is neither right nor left, as an exaggeration.
I imagine that on both sides, in this context of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) pushing these two men behind him; if a third person came and stood on the right, and if a fourth person came and stood on the left; at that time, the solution is right, left, right, left until the row is completed. And this is also indicated by the practice of the Muslims in placing the mihrabs in the middle of the mosques, even though these mihrabs have no basis in the Sunnah, but in any case, they indicate that the position where the imam stands to lead people in prayer is in the middle of the mosque. If this meaning is also noted, we understand that the rule should be as we mentioned: right, left, right, left until the row is completed from every side.

The questioner : Do you have a sub-branch in this issue, Shaykh? Some people mention sub-branches on this, saying: The best places in prayer behind the imam are directly behind the imam, then to the right of the imam, then to his left, and the preference remains directly behind the imam; due to the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): - or as it came in the hadith -?

The Shaykh, but this does not mean that a man comes and stands directly behind the imam after we saw that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) pushed them both together. If this had been the intention, he would have pushed them slightly to the right so that one of them would be behind the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). This is from one aspect. From another aspect, his saying (peace be upon him): does not give the precise meaning stated, nor... the Messenger (peace be upon him); because there may be a group of people of wisdom and understanding, the important thing is that they are behind him (peace be upon him). As for taking them to the right or left, the hadith does not give us this. But if we look at the hadith of Jabir mentioned earlier, we can say: The imam stands between the two men, or the two men are on both sides of the imam, right and left, then... as we mentioned earlier, this issue - as I said earlier - has no explicit text in terms of people arguing and debating about it, but what is agreed upon is what is done. And - as you said earlier - if you take from the hadith that one stands directly behind the imam, ... for example, if Allah wills, and this is exactly as we mentioned tonight a hadith on this occasion; namely the hadith of al-Bara' ibn 'Azib... He said: When we prayed behind the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), we loved to be behind him. So the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), when he prostrated, none of us would... meaning: none of us would prostrate until we saw the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) had placed his forehead on the ground. So being behind the Prophet does not give us this precision either; because it is a vague word; it could be more to the right according to...