What is the ruling on praying facing the face of a person, for example, if he is sitting?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : I say that some of the people, some of the worshippers, and he is the imam, when he prays, he turns around, so this worshipper prays in front of him, and what is wrong with that?
The Shaykh : Yes.
The questioner : And I prayed and turned around toward us from there...
The Shaykh : With my face.
The questioner : With your face.
The Shaykh : Yes.
The questioner : And we are sitting praying to complete the sunnah.
The Shaykh : Meaning you pray the sunnah facing the imam's face, for example.
The questioner : Yes, his face.
The Shaykh : Yes, here is something: there is a hadith that says, "The face of one who is prayed to will not prosper." This hadith has no basis in the Sunnah. But if the worshipper is praying toward the face of this imam who turned to the worshippers and is distracted by them and looking at them, then in that case, from this angle and from this side, it is disliked to pray toward him. This is not because there is a hadith that directly forbids praying toward the face of this Muslim or the one sitting in front of you. It also came in "Sahih al-Bukhari and Muslim" that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), when he stood to pray until the night, would pray toward Aisha while she was lying across in front of him, like a funeral bier; that is, like this, with her length on the bed, and he (peace be upon him) was praying toward her. It is possible that his prayer (peace be upon him) was toward her face, and it is possible that he was facing the back of her head and her back. The important point in the matter is that there is no prohibition forbidding this thing, unless this worshipper is distracted by looking at the face of this one facing him, in which case it is disliked, otherwise it is not.
Is the answer clear, if Allah wills?
The questioner : Yes.
The Shaykh : Good.
The Shaykh : Yes.
The questioner : And I prayed and turned around toward us from there...
The Shaykh : With my face.
The questioner : With your face.
The Shaykh : Yes.
The questioner : And we are sitting praying to complete the sunnah.
The Shaykh : Meaning you pray the sunnah facing the imam's face, for example.
The questioner : Yes, his face.
The Shaykh : Yes, here is something: there is a hadith that says, "The face of one who is prayed to will not prosper." This hadith has no basis in the Sunnah. But if the worshipper is praying toward the face of this imam who turned to the worshippers and is distracted by them and looking at them, then in that case, from this angle and from this side, it is disliked to pray toward him. This is not because there is a hadith that directly forbids praying toward the face of this Muslim or the one sitting in front of you. It also came in "Sahih al-Bukhari and Muslim" that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), when he stood to pray until the night, would pray toward Aisha while she was lying across in front of him, like a funeral bier; that is, like this, with her length on the bed, and he (peace be upon him) was praying toward her. It is possible that his prayer (peace be upon him) was toward her face, and it is possible that he was facing the back of her head and her back. The important point in the matter is that there is no prohibition forbidding this thing, unless this worshipper is distracted by looking at the face of this one facing him, in which case it is disliked, otherwise it is not.
Is the answer clear, if Allah wills?
The questioner : Yes.
The Shaykh : Good.
Source
www.al-albany.com
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.