Ruling on Reserving Spaces in Mosques and Study Circles
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What do you say about those who reserve spaces in lessons or in prayer, considering that one of the students of knowledge, who is well known, used to reserve a space all the time?The Shaykh: As for reserving a space in the mosque for prayer, the scholars differed on this, with two opinions: some permitted it, and some prohibited it.
So Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him) says: It is forbidden, and precedence is not established by what is placed in the row; precedence is established by the person’s body.
And some of the scholars say: It is permissible, but when the prayer is called for, your right is nullified.And what appears: It is not permissible in prayer.
As for study circles, it is less severe. This is to prevent the young ones, who do not understand anything from the teacher, from taking precedence over the older ones who understand and know. In any case, it is less severe than reserving a space for prayer.
I do not think that the reservation would be for the entire mosque for the students; perhaps they would reserve one or two rows.
As for prayer, should they be rebuked, or should what they use to reserve the space be removed? It should not be removed, because there is scholarly disagreement on this issue. If there is disagreement and it is removed, leading to conflict, the harm is greater than the reservation itself. One should avoid anything that leads to disagreement and conflict, for disagreement is evil and has no good in it.
So Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him) says: It is forbidden, and precedence is not established by what is placed in the row; precedence is established by the person’s body.
And some of the scholars say: It is permissible, but when the prayer is called for, your right is nullified.And what appears: It is not permissible in prayer.
As for study circles, it is less severe. This is to prevent the young ones, who do not understand anything from the teacher, from taking precedence over the older ones who understand and know. In any case, it is less severe than reserving a space for prayer.
I do not think that the reservation would be for the entire mosque for the students; perhaps they would reserve one or two rows.
As for prayer, should they be rebuked, or should what they use to reserve the space be removed? It should not be removed, because there is scholarly disagreement on this issue. If there is disagreement and it is removed, leading to conflict, the harm is greater than the reservation itself. One should avoid anything that leads to disagreement and conflict, for disagreement is evil and has no good in it.