Is there a specific prescribed manner of sitting for the one praying during the Friday sermon or the call to prayer in the mosque?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The Shaykh : 17: Is there a specific prescribed manner of sitting for the one praying during the Friday sermon or during the call to prayer in the mosque?
Answer: No, but one thing is observed: you sit however you wish, except that you face the imam. You sit squatting, on your knees, or in any normal, natural position, but you face the imam. If the preacher is delivering the sermon, the one here—for example—sits like this, and the one here sits like this, and those here all face him. They do not sit in rows as if they were in prayer. This is how the Companions of the Messenger (peace be upon him) used to sit in the assembly when the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) would preach to them from the pulpit. However, we must observe one thing while sitting for the Friday sermon: the Messenger (peace be upon him) forbade *al-ihtiba'* during the Friday sermon. *Al-ihtiba'* is roughly raising the knees, either holding them like this with your hands, or some elderly scholars would use something like a belt to support their back and knees, making them one piece so they could rest in it. This *al-ihtiba'* that the Messenger (peace be upon him) forbade is holding it like this with the hand. The scholars investigated the secret, wisdom, or operative cause of the prohibition of this *al-ihtiba'*: what is it?
It appeared to some of them that the wisdom behind it is that this sitting position brings drowsiness to the one who adopts it. The obligatory thing at that time is for the one sitting to engage in the means that alert and wake him up to listen to the sermon, not the means that make him drowsy, let alone put him to sleep. Therefore, among the etiquettes of sitting is that if a person feels some drowsiness and his eyelids begin to flutter, he should change his position, because this change brings about stimulation, even if only momentary. It may carry him to the end of the prayer, so that he remains a listener who is alert and awake.
So, sit however you wish on the day of the sermon, except for *al-ihtiba'*, and make sure that you are facing the imam wherever you are.
Answer: No, but one thing is observed: you sit however you wish, except that you face the imam. You sit squatting, on your knees, or in any normal, natural position, but you face the imam. If the preacher is delivering the sermon, the one here—for example—sits like this, and the one here sits like this, and those here all face him. They do not sit in rows as if they were in prayer. This is how the Companions of the Messenger (peace be upon him) used to sit in the assembly when the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) would preach to them from the pulpit. However, we must observe one thing while sitting for the Friday sermon: the Messenger (peace be upon him) forbade *al-ihtiba'* during the Friday sermon. *Al-ihtiba'* is roughly raising the knees, either holding them like this with your hands, or some elderly scholars would use something like a belt to support their back and knees, making them one piece so they could rest in it. This *al-ihtiba'* that the Messenger (peace be upon him) forbade is holding it like this with the hand. The scholars investigated the secret, wisdom, or operative cause of the prohibition of this *al-ihtiba'*: what is it?
It appeared to some of them that the wisdom behind it is that this sitting position brings drowsiness to the one who adopts it. The obligatory thing at that time is for the one sitting to engage in the means that alert and wake him up to listen to the sermon, not the means that make him drowsy, let alone put him to sleep. Therefore, among the etiquettes of sitting is that if a person feels some drowsiness and his eyelids begin to flutter, he should change his position, because this change brings about stimulation, even if only momentary. It may carry him to the end of the prayer, so that he remains a listener who is alert and awake.
So, sit however you wish on the day of the sermon, except for *al-ihtiba'*, and make sure that you are facing the imam wherever you are.
Source
www.al-albany.com
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.