What is the ruling if a woman passes in front of me while I am praying a voluntary prayer in al-Masjid al-Haram?

The questioner : May Allah reward you. The questioner asks: What is the ruling if a woman passes in front of me while I am praying?

The Shaykh : If, if?

The questioner : If a woman passes in front of me while I am praying a voluntary prayer in al-Masjid al-Haram?

The Shaykh : Yes. As for when a person is in the passageways of people, as we see now, those who pray in the passageways of people are the ones who have wronged themselves and others, and you may pass in front of them because they are the ones who did wrong. But if they are praying in places other than the passageways, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Forty, how many forty? What, minutes? Make it minutes. Forty hours, forty days, forty months. And in the narration of al-Bazzaz with this hadith: and the autumn, meaning the year. Meaning, if you were to stand for forty years until this man finishes his prayer, it would be better for you than passing in front of him. And therefore, it is obligatory for us to be careful. It is true that some scholars say that there is no sutrah in Makkah or in al-Masjid al-Haram, but the texts do not support this opinion or corroborate it, because the texts are general and there is no valid evidence that specifies that. We see that if a woman passes in front of the one praying in al-Masjid al-Haram or elsewhere, his prayer is invalid. But here is a way: if a person is praying on a mat, and a woman passes behind the mat, it does not harm him, because the limit of his prostration is the mat; it does not harm him. Likewise, if a person is with the imam, the woman does not harm him if she passes in front of him. So if he does not have a mat and is not with the imam, and a woman wants to pass, let him prevent her like this, then he moves forward and lets her pass behind him. Yes.