Is it permissible to pray behind a man who shaves his chin if he works in a bank and smokes cigarettes?

The questioner : Is it permissible to pray behind a man who shaves his chin if he works in a bank and smokes cigarettes?

The Shaykh : May Allah will it, you have gathered all the misfortunes together. Of course, these are clear and well-known sins, but they have no bearing on the validity or invalidity of the prayer, because one prays behind every Muslim, behind the open sinner and the wicked... And among the inherited Salafi beliefs is praying behind every righteous person and every wicked person, and praying for every righteous person and every wicked person. Just as one prays for the righteous and the wicked, so one prays behind every righteous person and every wicked person. It is permissible to pray behind him, and the prayer is valid. But this does not mean that the one praying must choose a righteous imam, an imam who follows the Sunnah, if he has the choice. Most of the questions we receive of this nature are from people who do not have a choice; there is no imam who is righteous and follows the Sunnah, and another imam. In this case, it is advised not to pray behind such a person. But if the situation is between praying alone and praying with the Muslim congregation and an imam with these ugly descriptions, then it is said: pray behind this open sinner, and his sinfulness is none of your concern. This is what the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) explicitly stated in the hadith narrated by Imam al-Bukhari in his Sahih, from the hadith of Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . And it is well known in early Islamic history that the early Muslims were tested by some open sinners and wicked rulers. Al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf al-Thaqafi is too famous to be mentioned for his injustice and his killing of innocent souls. Nevertheless, the Muslims used to pray behind him, including 'Abdullah ibn 'Umar ibn al-Khattab, who used to pray behind al-Hajjaj the killer. Also, some of the other rulers, perhaps they were afflicted with drinking intoxicants. It came in Sahih al-Bukhari that "one of them led the people in the Fajr prayer with four rak'ahs" instead of two. "When he finished, he said: 'Shall I add to you?' Shall I add to you, if what is sufficient for you is an addition of two rak'ahs, we will add to you." This is the extent of what? The deviation, meaning the practical one. But the Salaf's concern for the unity of the ranks and the word, and based on what they understood from such as his saying (peace be upon him): , and in a narration: , they understood that the prayer behind these imams is a valid and accepted prayer. Therefore, it came in their beliefs that they considered the prayer behind every righteous person and every wicked person valid, until this incident occurred. And in Sahih al-Bukhari, he prayed the Fajr with four rak'ahs, then said to them: "Peace be upon you, shall I add to you?" And none of them repeated the prayer. This is among the meanings of his saying (peace be upon him) in the well-known hadith: . Oh Allah, Oh Generous, ah, how are you?

The questioner : Praise be to Allah.

The Shaykh : You are welcome.

The questioner : Welcome to you, our Shaykh.

Another questioner : Our Shaykh, what you just mentioned reminds me of a question, which is the saying of Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He): to the end of the verse. Many of the exegetes mentioned that it was revealed regarding al-Walid ibn 'Uqbah. Is this established?

The Shaykh : By Allah, I do not know. It is what is mentioned in the books of tafsir, but I have not been able to research it from the hadith perspective; I do not know.