What is the ruling on praying and placing a heater in front of it?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : The honorable Shaykh, some people are scrupulous about praying in front of a heater. Is this correct?
The Shaykh : Praying what?
The questioner : As for the heater, the stove.
The Shaykh : In front of it, or the heater in front of him?
The questioner : And the heater is in front of him.
The Shaykh : Fine, the correct view is that there is nothing wrong with it, and we have not known of anyone among the scholars who disliked it. Some scholars disliked facing a fire that glows and has flames, and they explained their dislike by saying that standing before the fire resembles the standing of the Zoroastrians who worship fire. As for these heaters, they are not like the fire of the Zoroastrians. If we were to say this, we would have to say that we do not place heaters in the wall of the qiblah of the mosque because it is fire, and the qiblah is from the mosque. We have still heard from our scholars that they would bring incense burners and place them in front of the people, between the rows. Moreover, these heaters are only placed in front of the ma'mum (those praying behind the imam), not in front of the imam. What matters is what is in front of the imam. If we were to say that there is dislike in this, it is because the ma'mum are followers of him. For this reason, it is not prescribed for them to have a sutrah (barrier), because the imam's sutrah is the sutrah for those behind him. The point is that there is no concern about it, and there is nothing wrong with it.
The Shaykh : Praying what?
The questioner : As for the heater, the stove.
The Shaykh : In front of it, or the heater in front of him?
The questioner : And the heater is in front of him.
The Shaykh : Fine, the correct view is that there is nothing wrong with it, and we have not known of anyone among the scholars who disliked it. Some scholars disliked facing a fire that glows and has flames, and they explained their dislike by saying that standing before the fire resembles the standing of the Zoroastrians who worship fire. As for these heaters, they are not like the fire of the Zoroastrians. If we were to say this, we would have to say that we do not place heaters in the wall of the qiblah of the mosque because it is fire, and the qiblah is from the mosque. We have still heard from our scholars that they would bring incense burners and place them in front of the people, between the rows. Moreover, these heaters are only placed in front of the ma'mum (those praying behind the imam), not in front of the imam. What matters is what is in front of the imam. If we were to say that there is dislike in this, it is because the ma'mum are followers of him. For this reason, it is not prescribed for them to have a sutrah (barrier), because the imam's sutrah is the sutrah for those behind him. The point is that there is no concern about it, and there is nothing wrong with it.