Warning against the misunderstanding of one of the attendees, who thought that the Shaykh did not consider it permissible to pray behind some of those who have deviations in creed.

The questioner : Shaykh, may Allah reward you with good. After we went to the mosque, you said that some of the imams have an unsound creed. And the creed of the people of the Sunnah and the community holds that it is permissible to pray behind every righteous person and every sinner. How do we reconcile these two things?

The Shaykh : May Allah guide you. I did not say that it is not permissible to pray behind them!

The questioner : You did not say "it is not permissible"; you said "not especially."

The Shaykh : If you are asking to reconcile what with what, where is the contradiction? Listen a little, you are deprived of speaking! Where is the opposition so that we can reconcile it?

The questioner : Shaykh, you said "not especially."

The Shaykh : Do not tell me you said it. What do you want now? Where is the contradiction? I said "not especially." Do you know what "not especially" means?

The questioner : And particularly.

The Shaykh : And particularly means that, in addition to our preoccupation with knowledge, there are imams who, I said, may be Sufis whose creed is ruined and desolate—though that is not the exact wording—and they may not perform the prayer properly. This does not mean that the prayer behind them is invalid; that is a separate discussion. But we said that, in addition to our preoccupation with knowledge, there may be such and such. Where is the contradiction that you are looking for?