Do some of the worshippers cite the story of the change of the qiblah as evidence that the prayer of the one praying in front of the imam is valid? Is this correct?
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The questioner : He says: Some of the worshippers cited the hadith in which the people of the Mosque of the Two Qiblahs were praying, and then someone came to inform them that the qiblah had changed. They said that the imam only stood in his place, turned around, and the worshippers were behind him. Is this correct?
The Shaykh : We do not know of a basis for this with such explicitness, because the assumption is that the imam, as he turns, also moves forward.
The questioner : This is from the fiqh of Imam Malik.
The Shaykh : Yes
The questioner : Imam Malik relied on the hadith: "Turn around, and the imam turned around with them."
The Shaykh : The question is hadith-based, not fiqh-based. From the perspective of hadith, we do not know this hadith with this level of detail. What is known in al-Bukhari and Muslim is that they turned around as they were. It is possible that the imam remained in the back, and it is possible that he was in the front. But when we find that Islam permits the imam and the followers to perform this action, does it not permit the imam to move forward with the congregation to apply the Sunnah exactly? As for the madhhab of Imam Malik, this is a fiqh issue, and we agree with him in this issue. We do not say that the prayer of the one who is in front of the imam is invalid. Rather, we distinguish: if he moved forward and there was space for him to move back, he has committed a sin. If he moved forward out of necessity, as happens in the Prophet’s Mosque in particular, his prayer is valid and there is nothing wrong with it if it was out of necessity. But in other than a state of necessity, he has committed a sin.
The questioner : ... necessity
The Shaykh : It does not concern us, my brother. May Allah guide you. The research is either hadith-based or fiqh-based. In the hadith-based research, there is no text stating that the imam remained in his place. It is possible that he did, and it is possible that he moved forward. And this is what fiqh requires: the congregation who were addressed while they were praying with their backs to the Ka'bah and facing the House of Prayer (Bayt al-Maqdis), because that was how the Shari'ah was when the truthful messenger came to them saying that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) had faced the Ka'bah. So when these people responded to the messenger while they were in prayer, what do you think a person today, and this can be considered a joke, if one of the scholars came to him with news like this news, what do you think he would do? I have seen a very strange phenomenon in some of our homes. When we were heading to Madinah, we stopped in a village and entered a small mosque at the time of Maghrib prayer. A Turkish man, pious, of medium height and tall build, stood slightly behind the row. The mosque was small and needed the rows to be brought forward. A man from that area tried to move him forward a bit, but he did not move. In fact, there was nothing left but to push him, and he would fall to the ground. That man, by Allah, did not move at all, not at all. And I was praying, but my mind was working: why is this man not moving? Because in the Hanafi madhhab, if a person outside the prayer says to one who is praying, "Face the qiblah," and he is deviating from it, he must face it immediately, otherwise his prayer is invalid. And if someone comes and takes him by the shoulders and turns him, he must remain still. Why? Because he responded to him with speech, meaning. So these Ansar in the Mosque of Quba (may Allah be pleased with them), from here you can know the fiqh of the Salaf and the fiqh of the Khalaf. If they had been on this madhhab, they would not have listened to the messenger's words for a long time, a long time, until it would not appear to the observer that, by Allah, these people heard his words. Do you think they heard his words after a moment, or five, or ten? What is the difference? They heard his words. This is later fiqh. The point is: with their fiqh, they responded to the messenger... The imam is more deserving of responding, so he moves forward with the people, because there is no imam in the known Islamic prayer who leads the people while he is behind them. So he must apply the methodology he received from the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), just as they received this new methodology: that the Ka'bah is now from here, not from there.
The Shaykh : We do not know of a basis for this with such explicitness, because the assumption is that the imam, as he turns, also moves forward.
The questioner : This is from the fiqh of Imam Malik.
The Shaykh : Yes
The questioner : Imam Malik relied on the hadith: "Turn around, and the imam turned around with them."
The Shaykh : The question is hadith-based, not fiqh-based. From the perspective of hadith, we do not know this hadith with this level of detail. What is known in al-Bukhari and Muslim is that they turned around as they were. It is possible that the imam remained in the back, and it is possible that he was in the front. But when we find that Islam permits the imam and the followers to perform this action, does it not permit the imam to move forward with the congregation to apply the Sunnah exactly? As for the madhhab of Imam Malik, this is a fiqh issue, and we agree with him in this issue. We do not say that the prayer of the one who is in front of the imam is invalid. Rather, we distinguish: if he moved forward and there was space for him to move back, he has committed a sin. If he moved forward out of necessity, as happens in the Prophet’s Mosque in particular, his prayer is valid and there is nothing wrong with it if it was out of necessity. But in other than a state of necessity, he has committed a sin.
The questioner : ... necessity
The Shaykh : It does not concern us, my brother. May Allah guide you. The research is either hadith-based or fiqh-based. In the hadith-based research, there is no text stating that the imam remained in his place. It is possible that he did, and it is possible that he moved forward. And this is what fiqh requires: the congregation who were addressed while they were praying with their backs to the Ka'bah and facing the House of Prayer (Bayt al-Maqdis), because that was how the Shari'ah was when the truthful messenger came to them saying that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) had faced the Ka'bah. So when these people responded to the messenger while they were in prayer, what do you think a person today, and this can be considered a joke, if one of the scholars came to him with news like this news, what do you think he would do? I have seen a very strange phenomenon in some of our homes. When we were heading to Madinah, we stopped in a village and entered a small mosque at the time of Maghrib prayer. A Turkish man, pious, of medium height and tall build, stood slightly behind the row. The mosque was small and needed the rows to be brought forward. A man from that area tried to move him forward a bit, but he did not move. In fact, there was nothing left but to push him, and he would fall to the ground. That man, by Allah, did not move at all, not at all. And I was praying, but my mind was working: why is this man not moving? Because in the Hanafi madhhab, if a person outside the prayer says to one who is praying, "Face the qiblah," and he is deviating from it, he must face it immediately, otherwise his prayer is invalid. And if someone comes and takes him by the shoulders and turns him, he must remain still. Why? Because he responded to him with speech, meaning. So these Ansar in the Mosque of Quba (may Allah be pleased with them), from here you can know the fiqh of the Salaf and the fiqh of the Khalaf. If they had been on this madhhab, they would not have listened to the messenger's words for a long time, a long time, until it would not appear to the observer that, by Allah, these people heard his words. Do you think they heard his words after a moment, or five, or ten? What is the difference? They heard his words. This is later fiqh. The point is: with their fiqh, they responded to the messenger... The imam is more deserving of responding, so he moves forward with the people, because there is no imam in the known Islamic prayer who leads the people while he is behind them. So he must apply the methodology he received from the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), just as they received this new methodology: that the Ka'bah is now from here, not from there.