What is the meaning of the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): “There is no prayer for one who prays alone behind the imam”?

The questioner : What is the meaning of the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) ?

The Shaykh : This hadith is authentic, and its meaning is as every Arab understands it, without any baseless or unjustified interpretation. One who prays alone in a row is in one of two situations. The first situation is that he finds a gap in front of him in the row, but he does not occupy it or fill it, and he prays alone. In this case, this hadith applies to him: his prayer is invalid. The first scenario is that a person enters the mosque and finds the rows complete, so he waits, hoping that someone will come to stand with him in the row, but no one comes, and he fears missing the rak'ah. In this case, it is permissible for him to pray alone in the row, and this hadith does not apply to him, because Allah does not burden a soul beyond its capacity. There is a hadith found in some fiqh books that do not pay attention to purification, some of which I mentioned earlier, such as purifying the Sunnah from what has entered it that was not part of it, meaning purifying the Sunnah from weak and fabricated hadiths. There is a weak hadith narrated by Abu Ya'la in his Musnad that if a man enters the mosque and the row in front of him is full and tight, and he has no one to pray with, he pulls a person in front of him to stand with him. First, the chain of this hadith is weak, it does not constitute proof, and it is not permissible to act upon it. Second, this hadith creates a gap in the row in front of him. The Messenger (peace be upon him) said , so it is not permissible for this individual who entered the mosque to pull someone in order to correct his prayer, as he claims, by ruining the row in front of him. No, this is not prescribed. It is like the person who comes to the mosque and does not find a place in the row in front of him, so he prays alone. It is like the sick person, whose original state is to pray the obligatory prayer standing, but he is unable to pray standing due to his illness, so he prays sitting. Is his prayer valid? The answer is yes, by the consensus of the scholars. The prayer of the sick person sitting is valid. Why? First, because of the generality of the saying of Allah the Exalted . Second, because of his saying (peace and blessings be upon him) . So, is it said to this sick person who was unable to pray standing and prayed sitting that his prayer is invalid because he left a pillar? The answer is no, because his leaving of this pillar was not by his choice, but rather out of necessity. Likewise, it is not said to the one who prayed behind the row alone and did not find a gap in front of him to fill, so he prayed alone, that his prayer is invalid. Why? Because he did not intend to pray alone, but rather he was unable to pray with others. This is the answer to this question.

Another questioner : Do we order them to repeat the first one?

The Shaykh : The one who prays alone.

Another questioner : And finds space in the row.

The Shaykh : His prayer is invalid, and he must repeat it.

Another questioner : Even if he is ignorant of the matter, my Shaykh.

The Shaykh : How did you say?

Another questioner : Ignorant of this text; there are many people like that.

The Shaykh : Yes. First, we say his prayer is valid because his ignorance is excusable in this case. Why? Because most scholars issue a fatwa permitting it. So what does this poor person do? The ignorant person is sometimes excused and sometimes not, and the issue has further details.