Is it permissible to indicate the prayer with gestures when the crowd around the Sacred Ka'bah is very dense?

The questioner : If the crowd in Makkah becomes very dense and it is difficult for the worshipper to push back and turn away everyone who passes in front of him, and he fears missing the time, is he excused from pushing them back and turning them away?

The Shaykh : Yes, it is excused. Have we finished the issue of the woman? She covers herself, but she does not abort the fetus; the matter is concluded.

The questioner : Yes, exactly.

The Shaykh : Fine, you have two or three minutes left with me.

The questioner : Only this remains.

The Shaykh : What Allah willed.

The questioner : Shaykh, only four questions remain and we are done. Also, if the crowd in Makkah in the Sacred Mosque becomes very dense and the prayer is called, and I am near the Ka'bah and cannot bend my back, do I pray by indicating with my head? And what is the ruling if a woman who is not one of my mahrams is pressed against me during the prayer?

The Shaykh : Here there are two things: the woman being pressed against you and the Ka'bah being pressed against you. The woman being pressed against you is clear, but is he unable to delay until he prostrates?

The questioner : No, Shaykh, you know that during Hajj, one cannot bend his back due to the pressure of people on each other; that is not hidden, is it?

The Shaykh : No, I did not encounter this difficulty because I do not rush into the place of the severe crowd.

The questioner : Some people do encounter this.

The Shaykh : Think about the answer. It is narrated from 'Umar ibn al-Khattab that if he could not prostrate on the ground, he would prostrate on the back of his companion. Is this applicable here or not?

The questioner : By Allah, he would be pressed against him, and his chest would be on the back of his companion.

The Shaykh : His chest on the back of his companion, and this companion means the people all became one piece standing?

The questioner : Yes, a very severe crowd.

The Shaykh : No problem, meaning none of them prostrates, none of them bows?

The questioner : They cannot do that, meaning you know, in the Tawaf of Ifadah, the pressure of people is very severe.

The Shaykh : No problem, I am just imagining a picture that is more like a fictional story.

The questioner : No, absolutely not, it is realistic. May Allah reward you.

The Shaykh : Be patient a little.

The questioner : Please go ahead.

The Shaykh : This is the first man and there is a wall in front of him, imagine it like this?

The questioner : No, no, I am saying he is among the people.

The Shaykh : Fine, among the people, these are two people, this one is in front of this one, this one does not bow?

The questioner : He cannot, because there is a man in front of him.

The Shaykh : My brother, we will walk later. And this is what I pictured; I assumed for you that this is the first one. You said there is a man in front of him, and this man has a man in front of him, and this man has a man in front of him; where is the real imam? Did he reach the wall of the Ka'bah?

The questioner : Fine, the last one when the imam bows?

The Shaykh : We need to imagine the picture, may Allah reward you. The first one, the first one, the one you cannot say there is a person in front of him, meaning let us say he is the last one relative to the imam, what is in front of him?

The questioner : The first one who is near the Ka'bah? There is nothing in front of him except the wall of the Ka'bah.

The Shaykh : That is it.

The questioner : The imam, our Shaykh.

The Shaykh : Be patient a little; so can he bow or not?

The questioner : By Allah, it can be said that the pressure of people on him does not allow him space.

The Shaykh : This is what I imagine, and I have performed Hajj perhaps more than thirty times and I have not seen this purely fictional picture; because this will lead us to the following result, and you seem to have shared this feeling with me, but I tried to make you escape from it, and there is no escape.

The questioner : How?

The Shaykh : How? I pictured for you a person who has another person behind him, can he not? I told you he cannot bow? Then I wanted to say can he not prostrate? But you ruined my picture for you because you answered me regarding the bowing itself that he cannot; why? Because there is a person in front of him. I pictured two people, you added the third, ah, and the third and the fourth and so on until we reached the wall of the Ka'bah, okay, this one who has no one between him and the wall of the Ka'bah except the air separating him from the wall of the Ka'bah; I tell you, can this one bow or not? I imagine two cases, one of two cases, he can or he cannot, you take one of the two to build your question on it, what do you say?

The questioner : You know that the people, the place...

The Shaykh : I am giving you the choice, choose what you want from the two pictures and leave us from the chatter.

The questioner : He may be able to and he may not be able to. May Allah reward you.
Al-Halabi : He gave you the two pictures.

The Shaykh : I am with you, I am answering you with two pictures, choose the worst of them, choose the best of them that fits the question in your mind?

The questioner : He cannot.

The Shaykh : Here, this answer is good, so here now you have imagined — imagine with me — people like this packed together with each other.

The questioner : This is what happens.

The Shaykh : No problem... the one in front of the Ka'bah, he cannot bow, consequently the one behind him.

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : No, he cannot bow, see how, and you believed in it and said this is what happens; so the second one cannot, if it is about bodies pressed together, then as long as the first one cannot bow, the tenth and twentieth cannot bow; fine, what is the question now?

The questioner : Does he indicate with his head?

The Shaykh : Of course, and this is the least that is obligatory upon him.