Ruling on delivering the Friday sermon in a language other than Arabic
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
The first message in this episode is from our brother, the listener Sa'd Ibrahim Abd al-Hamid Abu Duqqah, an Egyptian working in al-Qassim—Buraydah. Our brother began his message by saying: In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Bestower of Mercy. Addressed to His Eminence Shaykh Abd al-Aziz ibn Baz: I testify to Allah that I love you for the sake of Allah, and I hope you will be kind enough to answer the following:
First: There are workers in the company where we work who speak more than ten languages and do not know the Arabic language. Is it permissible for there to be someone during the Friday sermon who translates the sermon? That is, the preacher preaches for ten minutes, then the translator follows, and so on. Please guide us? May Allah reward you with good.
Answer:
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Praise be to Allah, and may Allah send prayers and blessings upon the Messenger of Allah, and upon his family and his Companions, and upon those who follow his guidance. As for what follows:
There is no doubt that making people understand the objectives of the sermon in the language they understand is a matter of great importance, and the need for it is pressing. We have written about this, as Allah wills, what we hope will benefit the Muslim community. What we see in this matter is that the preacher should, if he is proficient in the language of the attendees, explain to them in their language the meanings and objectives of the sermon so that the benefit is realized. If he is not proficient in that, there is no harm in having a translator who translates the objectives of the sermon for the attendees who do not understand the Arabic language, whether that is done during the sermon after every sentence by conveying its meanings in their language, or at the end of the sermon by translating its objectives and meanings for them so that they benefit from it and receive the same benefit as their brothers who understand the preacher's language.
The presenter: May Allah reward you with good.
The first message in this episode is from our brother, the listener Sa'd Ibrahim Abd al-Hamid Abu Duqqah, an Egyptian working in al-Qassim—Buraydah. Our brother began his message by saying: In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Bestower of Mercy. Addressed to His Eminence Shaykh Abd al-Aziz ibn Baz: I testify to Allah that I love you for the sake of Allah, and I hope you will be kind enough to answer the following:
First: There are workers in the company where we work who speak more than ten languages and do not know the Arabic language. Is it permissible for there to be someone during the Friday sermon who translates the sermon? That is, the preacher preaches for ten minutes, then the translator follows, and so on. Please guide us? May Allah reward you with good.
Answer:
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Praise be to Allah, and may Allah send prayers and blessings upon the Messenger of Allah, and upon his family and his Companions, and upon those who follow his guidance. As for what follows:
There is no doubt that making people understand the objectives of the sermon in the language they understand is a matter of great importance, and the need for it is pressing. We have written about this, as Allah wills, what we hope will benefit the Muslim community. What we see in this matter is that the preacher should, if he is proficient in the language of the attendees, explain to them in their language the meanings and objectives of the sermon so that the benefit is realized. If he is not proficient in that, there is no harm in having a translator who translates the objectives of the sermon for the attendees who do not understand the Arabic language, whether that is done during the sermon after every sentence by conveying its meanings in their language, or at the end of the sermon by translating its objectives and meanings for them so that they benefit from it and receive the same benefit as their brothers who understand the preacher's language.
The presenter: May Allah reward you with good.
Source
binbaz.org.sa
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.