The Shaykh’s remarks on Bakr Abu Zayd’s treatise on straightening the rows, his critique of it, and his clarification of some of Shaykh Bakr’s errors in it.

The Shaykh: Yes.
The student: When it came back, the rows spread out, meaning, what is it?

The Shaykh: It is he who moved us anew to look into the subject. Generally, speaking about the subject is different from researching it, of course.
The student : Yes.

The Shaykh: Because the research has been investigated and concluded long ago. That is a favor from Allah upon us and upon the people.
The student : Praise be to Allah.

The Shaykh: And what moved us to speak about the subject anew is that this Shaykh Bakr Abu Zayd, may Allah guide him, has published a new treatise. I do not know if you have heard anything about it or not!
The student: No, no, I heard, I heard.

The Shaykh: He titled it: "There is Nothing New in the Rulings of Prayer," and he is going there to demolish issues from the Sunnah, being biased toward the Hanbali school. Among them is the issue of shoulder touching shoulder and foot touching foot. He speaks about some people who hold firmly to the Sunnah and are strict in applying it. He spoke about seven issues, he erred in most of them and was correct in the fewest. What concerns us now, among the issues in which he erred, is that he attributes those who stick their heels to each other’s heels to strictness, and he describes them in a way—I do not know if he is truthful or not, and I do not want to say that he is a liar, but in any case, he is exaggerating. And exaggeration is, in truth, the sister of lying. So he exaggerates a lot, especially when he speaks against his own opinion on the issue. Among what he mentioned, he says that some of these strict people will be standing to the right of the imam, so he sees that the foot of the person to his right is far from him, so he chases him. And if he is to the left of the imam, he sees the person to his left and chases him. And you know, of course, that the issue is exactly the opposite. So I do not know if he is truthful in this perception, or if he actually saw some people doing this, and I do not rule it out. But what made me doubt—how did I come from here—notice, I mean, I am sorry, the man is our companion and our friend, but, glory be to Allah, he has a trick. When he speaks about his opponent, he uses the word "chasing," and he talks about this image, that if he is to his right, he chases him, and if he is to his left, he chases him. So he uses the word "chasing." He brings it up and wants to correct what he says: "And the Sunnah in arranging the rows is to chase toward the imam." This is correct speech. Whoever is to the right of the imam arranges himself; he does not say he chases, because he does not see chasing. He says: he arranges himself toward the right of the imam. And whoever is to the left of the imam arranges himself to his right. The issue here of right and left is reasonable and legally sound. But he does not use the word "chasing," because that is what he denies. This is in the first part of his research on the point; he draws attention to this deception. He does not come to deny, for example, chasing explicitly! He comes to deny that instead of going to the left side of the imam, he goes to the right side! Do you understand how?
The student : Yes, exactly.

The Shaykh: Whereas frankness, clarification, and advice require him to say: there are two errors here: an error of right and left, and an error of chasing. No, he leaves the word "chasing," which he included in his denial, and then he comes to talk about right and left, and he uses the word "arranging the rows." That is the first one. The second one, which is much more dangerous and important: the army used to use the red signal between the army. He comes up to a hadith that exists in two sources, or two hadiths, one from Anas and the other from al-Nu'man ibn Bashir. Unfortunately, due to his bias, he cites the hadith of al-Nu'man without the hadith of Anas, even though the hadith of Anas is more authentic than the hadith of al-Nu'man. The hadith of Anas is in Sahih al-Bukhari, and the hadith of al-Nu'man is in Sunan Abu Dawud, and it is authentic with us, there is no problem with it. So why does he turn away from the hadith of Anas? Because there is no flaw in its text regarding his point of view. As for the hadith of al-Nu'man, there is a flaw in it regarding his point of view, as I said. The hadith of Anas says that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), before he would say the takbir, would order the straightening of the rows: . Anas, who narrated this hadith, said: "So one of them would stick his foot to the foot of his companion."