One of them is accustomed to praying in a specific mosque in another town that he goes to; is that permissible for him?

The questioner : One of the people is accustomed to praying in a specific mosque, so he goes to another town to perform the prayer; meaning, for the sake of the prayer; is that permissible for him?

The Shaykh : We should understand why he does that.

The questioner : He goes for the sake of the prayer only.

The Shaykh : I understand. Prayer exists everywhere. Why does he leave the mosque of his village or his neighborhood and go to another village? He has no motive for that, so we must know the deterrent and the motive for him so that we can give the correct answer.

Another questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : We hear from there the one who is handling the question.

The questioner : It is possible that he likes this person, or he has piety, or he has faith; meaning, and so on.

The Shaykh : No, no. If you tell me, for example, that he recites the Qur'an better than that imam, or he is a jurist and that imam is ignorant and not a jurist; you must provide valid legal benefits so that we can say: yes, he does it. But if you say: perhaps this and perhaps that, I say: the answer is perhaps this. What is the benefit?! Here our man said: increasing the steps. This is an explanation that has a trace of light, a glimmer of light, but I wonder, is it sufficient for a Muslim that his motive for preferring one mosque over another is merely to increase the steps? And without doubt, it is established in the Sunnah that a group of the Ansar wanted to move their houses to near the Prophet’s Mosque. When the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) learned of that, he said to them: ; meaning: stay in your homes ; meaning, every step is recorded as a good deed that expiates a bad deed. But if a person is a neighbor of the mosque, and he turns away from it to a distant mosque on the claim of what? Increasing the steps only? This is not sufficient; because the neighbor of the mosque has a right, the mosque has a right over him, and he has a right over it; so it is not obligatory, rather it is not permissible, to waste this right.
If we imagine the neighbors of the mosque adopting this logic, all of them—what Allah willed!—are a group who love good deeds and high ranks, and increasing good deeds, and expiating bad deeds; and they left the neighbors of the mosque and moved to where? A distant mosque. Where are you going, people? To increase the steps. You ruined the mosque!! And the mosque must be maintained with worship and prayer. But the correct plan that should be the alternative to this plan, or that one whose motive we do not know; is that I am going to such-and-such mosque because its imam is a reciter who has memorized the Qur'an. This is our imam, Drouish, who may recite al-Fatihah or a surah... and that is all, especially in the Fajr prayer in which it is recommended to lengthen the recitation; especially in the tarawih prayer in which it is recommended to lengthen the recitation more and more, and so on. Ah, we tell him: you have understood, so stick to it. Walk as far as you go behind such an imam, and you are on the right path. But by Allah, if it is only to increase good deeds and steps, nothing else; reverse it and you will hit the mark. Think that you are praying behind an imam who, first: has a sound creed, his creed of tawhid (the oneness of Allah) is well understood; second: is upon the Sunnah and not upon the narrow madhhab (school of jurisprudence) and the deviated Sufi path; third—and lastly: is righteous in himself, and part of his righteousness is that he recites the Qur'an well; so run after him. But if it is only to increase good deeds, this is not prescribed in...

Another questioner : Our master, the Shaykh.

The Shaykh: Go ahead.