contemporary views

Contemporary views: Shaykh ʿAbd Allah b. Ṣāliḥ al-Fawzān (Aḥkām ḥuḍūr al-masjid): 1. Permissibility-Mālik, al-Shāfiʿī, Abū Ḥanīfah; 2. Prohibited-Aḥmad, many of the ḥadīth and fiqh scholars, Ibn Bāz; 3. If there is place in the last prayer row (ṣaff) then it is prohibited, if not, it is permissible-Ibn Qudāmah, al-Buwayṭī, al-Ḥasan al-Baṣarī, Ibn Taymiyyah, Ibn al-Qayyim. Shaykh ʿAbd Allah prefers the third view and gives the following reasons for doing so: (a) The scholars are agreed that the person is excused from the pillars (arkān) and obligatory acts (wājibāt) of the ṣalāt in the case of inability to perform them. Filling up the prayer row, according to him, is not considered a pillar or an obligatory act of prayer. The person’s inability to fill the last row, therefore, is even more excusable. (b) The general texts of the sharīʿah support this view such as: “Fear Allah as much as you can” (al-Taghābun: 16); “And Allah does not impose on any self any more than it can stand” (al-Baqarah: 286); “If I command you to do something, then do whatever is within your ability.” (al-Bukhārī). (c) This view allows for reconciliation. The ḥadīth of ʿAlī b. Shaybān (which has the same meaning as that of Abū Bakrah) “Repeat your prayer; there is no prayer for the person who prays alone behind the [last] prayer row (ṣaff) (Ibn Mājah, al-Bayhaqī, Aḥmad, Ibn Ḥibban).1 1 Shaykh ʿAbd Allah cites the work of shaykh al-Albanī (Irwā al-ghalīl) who graded this ḥadīth as ṣahīh li ghayrihī.