The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) forbade al-ithrah; what is al-ithrah?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : As for al-ithrah itself, if you were to allow it?
The Shaykh : Al-ithrah is when a person distinguishes himself from others. For example, these are the people who spread out prayer rugs even though mats are available and everything else is available. Right now, he is in the same situation, but he is not paying attention. Now, when he prays as an imam, there is a special rug in front of him that is exclusively for him.
The questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh : Yes, this is a type of al-ithrah, unless there is an excuse such as illness, pain, or something similar. But in almost all mosques, they distinguish the imams with a prayer rug, correct?
The questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh : This is al-ithrah.
The Shaykh : Al-ithrah is when a person distinguishes himself from others. For example, these are the people who spread out prayer rugs even though mats are available and everything else is available. Right now, he is in the same situation, but he is not paying attention. Now, when he prays as an imam, there is a special rug in front of him that is exclusively for him.
The questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh : Yes, this is a type of al-ithrah, unless there is an excuse such as illness, pain, or something similar. But in almost all mosques, they distinguish the imams with a prayer rug, correct?
The questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh : This is al-ithrah.
Source
www.al-albany.com
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.