The Prayer Behind an Innovator Imam
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Is the prayer valid behind a mosque imam who says: Is the Qur'an created, and is the one who commits a major sin to remain in the Fire forever?
We say: The more God-fearing the imam is, the better it is to pray behind him. If he is an innovator, we look at the nature of his innovation. If his innovation is one that entails disbelief, then praying behind him is not valid, because he is a disbeliever, and a disbeliever has no valid prayer and no right to lead prayer. If his innovation is one that entails open sinfulness, then it is better not to pray behind him, because of the self-deception he may feel when he sees people praying behind him, and the self-deception of others who are deceived by praying behind this man. Especially if this man is one who is pointed out as a reference, then one should not pray behind him—even if his innovation is one that entails open sinfulness—so that people are not deceived by the Muslims praying behind him; for that would be a cause for them to fall into some of his innovation.
We say: The more God-fearing the imam is, the better it is to pray behind him. If he is an innovator, we look at the nature of his innovation. If his innovation is one that entails disbelief, then praying behind him is not valid, because he is a disbeliever, and a disbeliever has no valid prayer and no right to lead prayer. If his innovation is one that entails open sinfulness, then it is better not to pray behind him, because of the self-deception he may feel when he sees people praying behind him, and the self-deception of others who are deceived by praying behind this man. Especially if this man is one who is pointed out as a reference, then one should not pray behind him—even if his innovation is one that entails open sinfulness—so that people are not deceived by the Muslims praying behind him; for that would be a cause for them to fall into some of his innovation.