A question which many including myself can relate to was asked to Sheikh Abu Iyas (d.2023) concerning the practice of some of those praying in congregational prayer insisting on physically touching the feet of the person next to them in the salah. This practice leads to harming and distracting the musalli from his salah, creating division and hatred among the worshippers and even forcing someone to leave the saff (row) because they didn’t have enough space to stand! I have personally witnessed and experienced all of this. Such a practice is fanaticism and not from the sunnah and contrary to the concept of Al-Wasatiyyah (balance and moderation) which can be seen throughout the sharia.
Question: You notice with me that some worshippers stick their feet to the feet of other worshippers. If the worshippers are bothered by their feet touching the feet of these people and they move their feet away a little, then these people return to placing their feet on their feet, even if this is repeated several times. Is this action permissible, and what is its hukm?
Sheikh Abu Iyas’s response: This is a literal understanding of what is mentioned in the hadiths, such as: رُصُّوا صُفُوفَكُمْ “Straighten your rows,”[1] سُدُّوا الْخَلَلَ “Fill the gaps,”[2] and وَلاَ تَذَرُوا فُرُجَاتٍ لِلشَّيْطَانِ “Do not leave openings for Satan,”[3] and others. Many have transgressed against these texts without knowledge of them or understanding their implications. They read them and derive rulings from them as if they were scholars, even though they, or many of them, cannot read the texts correctly. This is something I have personally witnessed and heard. May Allah guide them and forgive them.
What is required is that there be no gap between one worshipper and another that would allow another worshipper to stand [in that gap]. It is not permissible for there to be a space between you and the person next to you in prayer that would allow another worshipper to stand i.e. large enough for a person to stand in it, because then the row becomes broken, and this is forbidden according to the text.
However, if the space between you and the person next to you is not large enough for a worshipper to stand, then the row is continuous and not broken, and there is no sin in that, such as if there are five or ten centimeters between your feet and the feet of the person next to you.
The hadith رُصُّوا صُفُوفَكُمْ “Straighten your rows,”[4] does not imply that one foot should be touching the other. Look at the Almighty’s words:
إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ يُحِبُّ ٱلَّذِينَ يُقَـٰتِلُونَ فِى سَبِيلِهِۦ صَفًّۭا كَأَنَّهُم بُنْيَـٰنٌۭ مَّرْصُوصٌۭ
Surely Allah loves those who fight in His cause in ˹solid˺ ranks as if they were one concrete structure.[5]
The phrase بُنْيَـٰنٌۭ مَّرْصُوصٌۭ “a solid structure” does not imply that one fighter should be touching the other in battle, as that is impossible, hinders fighting, is not permissible, and is not what the noble verse requires. The same can be said regarding the hadith رُصُّوا صُفُوفَكُمْ “Straighten your rows.”[6]
Source: Abu Iyas Mahmud ibn Abd al-Latif ibn Mahmud (Awidah), ‘Selected Jurisprudential Issues,’ Expanded and Revised, Second Edition, 2008, question 143
Notes
[1] Bulugh al-Maram, https://sunnah.com/bulugh/2/320
[2] Abu Dawud 681, https://sunnah.com/abudawud:681
[3] Abu Dawud 666, https://sunnah.com/abudawud:666
[4] Bulugh al-Maram, https://sunnah.com/bulugh/2/320
[5] Holy Qur’an, Surah As-Saff, ayah 4
[6] Bulugh al-Maram, https://sunnah.com/bulugh/2/320
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