What is the ruling on the custom of drawing lines in mosques to straighten the rows, and what is the criterion for the transmitted public interest (maslahah mursalah) and religious innovation (bid'ah)?

The Shaykh: Yes.

The questioner : Do customs fall under the category of religious innovations?

The Shaykh : No, customs fall under the general meaning of his (peace and blessings be upon him) statement: So if a custom does not contradict the Shari'ah, you have the choice to either do it or leave it. He (peace and blessings be upon him) came to fulfill what the Exalted said in the Qur'an: He came to perform the function of clarifying the religion; as for worldly matters, as you see, something new appears every day. For this reason, he said in the well-known hadith: .

The questioner : What if these customs are related to acts of worship?

The Shaykh : What if these customs are related to acts of worship? Perhaps you mean if they give the impression that they are part of the acts of worship, giving the impression; but according to the apparent meaning of your words, can you give an example?

The questioner : ... many, or for example a line...

The Shaykh : This has moved away from the subject of your first question, regarding customs related to acts of worship and customs separate from acts of worship. You gave the example of the line drawn in some mosques, so this is a custom that returns to what I told you. Perhaps you mean customs related to acts of worship, and it clarifies that my suspicion was in its place. It is not a pure act of worship, but it is linked to an act of worship. In that case, we look at this custom and what is the motive for people to do it. If the motive is something related to religiosity, then here we look: if the intention of this religiosity is to increase closeness to Allah, then it ceases to be a custom and enters the category of being an act of worship. In that case, it is an act of worship that is not legislated, and it is covered by the previous hadith . But if this means is not intended for its own sake, but rather because in the circumstances of some people it achieves a legitimate public interest, first that this interest is not achieved except by it, and secondly that there is no... The best example we have is what you mentioned, the line. Drawing the line in mosques is a misleading innovation (bid'ah dhalalah) and it is not permissible to rely on it in mosques, except in some mosques and at a specific time. I mean mosques that were built deviating from the qiblah, or were not originally built as a mosque but were a house that was then endowed as a mosque, and it was agreed that the qiblah of this house is deviated to the right or left. Here, to correct the straightening of the rows for the congregation of worshippers, there is no harm in drawing this line or this mark as a reminder and teaching, but not forever. Because it is necessary to adopt another means by which this first means can be dispensed with, such as correcting the qiblah of the mosque by building a wall, even if it is formal, even if it is of light wood or something similar, so that the one entering directly faces the qiblah. As for mosques whose qiblah is correct and their direction toward the qiblah and the Ka'bah is correct, placing this line is from innovations and misguidance because it contradicts the Sunnah. I mean it contradicts the Sunnah of straightening the rows and contradicts the imams of the mosques performing their duty of enjoining the straightening of the rows and what relates to the worshippers. If they become accustomed to praying in the mosques and straightening the rows there by the line, they may pray in a mosque that does not have a line, or they may pray in the prayer grounds that have started to spread this year, and praise be to Allah, in many countries, they pray in the open, and you will find the row to be one of the worst rows, they do not do it well because they did not practice in their mosques and their imams did not train them in straightening the rows, because they do not pray except by the line, so they rely with their imams on praying by the innovated line. And this is undoubtedly from the inspiration of Satan and confirms some of the effects that came from some of our Salaf who said: "No innovation is introduced except that a Sunnah is killed." This is a reality we touch with our hands; no innovation is introduced except that a Sunnah is killed. And this is the example before you: drawing the line in the mosque for the sake of one person saying to the other, "My brother, move forward and backward until the row is perfectly straight, just as the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) used to do, and the Khulafa' after him, until in the time of 'Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him), when the Prophet's Mosque expanded with the worshippers and the rows increased greatly, he appointed a specific person to straighten the rows. He would order everyone to straighten the rows and that employee would help him, so he would not say Allahu Akbar until he heard from the one straightening the rows that the rows had been straightened. These Sunnahs were abolished a long time ago, and now the easy means for drawing lines in mosques have been found, and they have excelled in it, so they put lines on the carpets in white. And what is the need for drawing a line from the beginning of the mosque to the end? This is all a nullification of the command to straighten the rows, which the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) exaggerated in urging to straighten, to the extent that he used to say: And in the other narration . And with the authenticity of these hadiths, I say that the imams have neglected them, because the imamate and the adhan today, like all religious jobs, have become like other government jobs, a job performed by an employee who does not intend the Face of Allah and does not seek the pleasure of the Face of Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He. So the imam just wants to get rid of this job like a person carrying a burden on his shoulders and wanting to throw it to the ground, while the imam, praise be to Allah, has been provided with an atmosphere by which he acquires thousands of good deeds night and day . So this imam, whenever he guides one of the worshippers to a Sunnah or a legal ruling and the worshipper follows it, whenever he does it, his reward is written for the one who guided him. But there is no longer a desire for such deferred rewards as much as there is a desire for immediate rewards. Therefore, the imam of the mosque hardly establishes a prayer without saying Allahu Akbar, he does not order the people to straighten the prayer for the sake of these two authentic hadiths and their like. And if you heard, would you not hear a hadith that has no basis? A hadith that has no basis.
Al-Halabi : They interpret it.

The Shaykh : The dead do not deserve condolences. A hadith that has no basis at all in the books of the Sunnah. And a person wonders how these hadiths spread. This is famous in our region in Syria, this hadith, and I came here and heard it also, and so on. So the authentic hadiths they killed, and the hadiths that have no basis they revived, and so they do with the Sunnahs, they kill them. And every day there is a new innovation, and from these innovations is this line. So this line that is placed in the mosque is sometimes a misleading innovation, and you have known the reason for that. Sometimes it is from the category of the transmitted public interest to correct the qiblah of a mosque whose condition is as we mentioned to you earlier. But accepting this line in the mosque that is deviated from the qiblah is also not permissible. Because it is obligatory to correct the wall so that the person is straight in his prayer toward the qiblah. Then we observe some observations: the mosque is called two parts, internal and external. The internal is called the Haram, the courtyard is the mosque courtyard or a section attached to the mosque. So you find the people who pray inside on the line facing the qiblah, while the people who pray behind are deviated from the qiblah. What is the reason? Because their qiblah is the wall in front of them, and this wall is a separator between the external section and the internal section. So they faced the wall, and you find those inside the mosque praying like this, and this one praying like this. Because this one is following the line, and the line is facing the qiblah, and this one is following the wall, which is the wall that is behind the qiblah wall. The reason is the negligence of people and their lack of attention and their reliance on material means that do not come from the mind or the heart. So I think you have understood that the example you brought may sometimes be a legitimate means at a specific time, and in that case it enters the category of transmitted public interests, and sometimes it is from the category of misleading innovation on which the scholars agreed to rule it as an innovation. Because although they differed on whether there is a good innovation in Islam or not, they agreed that if the innovation contradicts the Sunnah, it is misguidance. There is no disagreement at all on this. But an innovation that does not directly contradict the Sunnah, and it was found that, unfortunately, it is a good innovation. If you did not call it from the customs, then you clarified that it has a connection sometimes to some acts of worship, this may enter the category of transmitted public interests and be permissible, and if it does not enter, it is a misleading innovation. O Allah, the Generous, please.