Question 95 : Assalamu alaikum shaikhs, may Allah reward you with the highest levels of Jannah. This happened a while ago. I thought I would confirm what I heard was correct.

I was praying in a mosque using a chair as a sutrah. There were a lot of chairs around. A person come over and took the chair I was using as a sutrah and moved it about 1 metre to the side sat in it and started praying.

When he finished, I went over to him and said I am not sure whether you should move someones sutrah while they are praying. He said he was an imam long time ago. He knows about this stuff and it is ok. I wanted to confirm if this is correct ?

I saw in Al Masjid an Nabawi someone carrying a bag. They would put the bag down in front of the person praying to act as a sutrah, then walk past the person around the bag, then take the bag and keep walking. They were using this technique to walk past people praying to make their way out of the masjid. Is this acceptable ?

Answer :  Assalamualaikum Br Ibrahim Abu Awan

There are a few points here.

First Point:

Typically, there are a number of chairs in each masjid and so it would have been better if the brother took another chair rather than the one in front of you which was your sutrah.

Second Point:

But if there was no other chair which he could have taken, then his need to sit on it and pray a fard prayer is more important than one of us having a sutrah, especially in a big masjid like masjid nabawi or the Haram in Makkah.

Third Point:

This is because some scholars said that in masjid nabawi and masjid Haram, during extremely busy times, it maybe okay if we cannot always have sutrah or if we are forced to walk in front of a person praying without sutrah due to its need.

Fourth Point:

Islam doesn’t require us to carry a bag and place it in front of each praying person to be able to pass in front of him. Instead walk from further away if possible (beyond the sajdah distance), otherwise Allah doesn’t require more than what we can actually do.