What is the ruling on one who prays behind the row alone?

The questioner : Why did he order them to repeat the prayer? Was there a gap and he did not fill it?

The Shaykh : Do you have a hadith?

The questioner : ...

The Shaykh : I am not asking for your opinion. Do you have a hadith? I mean, you and I are two parties. You narrate the hadith, and I am asking you to narrate the hadith. But now I want to apply the hadith and its ruling to the other hadiths. This is the field now. So, do you have anything from the perspective of narration beyond what you have narrated?

The questioner: No.

The Shaykh : So, what do you want? Explain it to me.

The questioner : You wrote in a complete book that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) — I mean in the other narration — ordered the Companion to repeat his prayer?

The Shaykh : Correct, we agree on this?

The questioner : What do you have as the 'illah (operative cause) for that?

The Shaykh : We do not have an 'illah for that. We have a ruling for that. Where is the 'illah? Where do we bring it from?

The questioner : We said: that is, the absence of a gap and the inability to pray behind the imam, so he prays alone. So the Companion here is either in a situation where there was a gap and he did not enter it, or he was able to stand beside the imam and did not do so. And with that, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) ordered him to repeat his prayer...

The Shaykh : Look, my brother, do you have a text that says there was a gap or there was no gap?

The questioner: No.

The Shaykh : Well, so we are doing fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence). We have nothing but "repeat your prayer" for the one who prays behind the row alone. We have nothing but this. So now you are asking me about the 'illah. I say: I did not understand from the hadith a specified 'illah. Now we want to do fiqh. Now let us do fiqh and leave what came before. Now let us assume that there is a gap, and he did not fill it. First, he would be sinful, because we are commanded to fill the gaps. In that case, the hadith is very clear: the command was because this man fell short. Correct? Now let us assume the exact opposite. That there was no gap, and yet he (peace and blessings be upon him) said to him: . Why does he order him to repeat the prayer? Here lies the fiqh, because we do not have a specified 'illah that there was a gap or that there was no gap. How do we handle the matter? We handle it from both assumptions. We assumed there was a gap and we knew the answer, and the matter proceeds naturally. Now let us assume there is no gap here. Then we build on the assumption that the Messenger said to him: . Why did he order him to repeat the prayer? Is there a detail? Well, if a Muslim is commanded to perform a pillar of the prayer and he did not do it because he was unable, we have explained that his prayer is valid. So now we assume that the saying of the Messenger: and , is that one of the conditions of the prayer is that a person prays in the row and not alone. Does this saying: give us more than this? If that is the case, what is the difference between the one who enters the mosque and is unable to join the row in front of him or to catch up with the imam, and the one who is unable to pray standing due to the absence of the 'illah (operative cause) which is the ability? Is there a difference? Therefore, we say, from the perspective of fiqh: that this person who entered the mosque must do what is possible for him.
First: that he joins the row, if he is able to do so.
Second: if he is not able, he catches up with the imam. If he is not able, what does he do? It is said to him: Look at the people while they are praying. There is no such ruling in Islam. Rather, it is said: Fear Allah as much as you are able, as is the rule. Therefore, we are certain that the most just opinion is this detail. As for saying: that the prayer behind the row, even if a gap is found, is valid but violates the command or the correctness, this contradicts the authentic hadiths. As for saying: the exact opposite of this, that he remains standing like this until the imam finishes or is about to finish. This has no basis in fiqh at all. So either it is said: pray as much as you are able, or it is said: do not pray. And no jurist would ever say that.

The questioner : Is it permissible to pull one person from the row?

The Shaykh : This is a good question. If the hadith of Abu Ya'la regarding the command to the one who comes to the mosque and finds the row full were authentic, where he said to him: , if this hadith were authentic, it would have solved the problem, and we would not have needed such explanation, detail, and fiqh. But the hadith is weak. It does not constitute a proof, and no legal ruling is based on it.
This is from the perspective of its chain of narration. But there remains a problem with it. What did we do when we pulled the man? We corrected our prayer, we thought, and we tried to be precise so that we would not spoil the prayer of the one in front of us. In the way of correcting our prayer, we spoiled the prayer of the one in front of us. What is the spoiling? We created a gap. If this gap is not filled by the one to its right and left, a Shaytan (Satan) will enter between them, as is explicit in the hadiths of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). And if we assume that the gap is filled, but the gap remains on the right or left, and it is necessary, in any case, we have created a defect in the row. Why? To compensate for this defect with a defect. No, my brother, let the first row be without defect, and we fear Allah as much as we are able, and we do not create a defect in the row in front of us.