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Fatwa CenterConditions required for leading prayer
Question
What are the conditions are leading prayers?
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger. We ask Allaah to exalt his mention as well as that of his family and all his companions.
The conditions that are required for a person (an Imaam) to lead the prayer are as follows:
1) Being a Muslim as it is not acceptable for a non-Muslim to lead the prayer; there is a consensus of the scholars
on this issue.
2) He should be free from any innovation that takes a person out of the fold of Islam.
3) He should be a male if there are males among the congregation; this is the view of the former and contemporary scholars and the view of the seven jurists and the four Imaams and others.
4) He should be in a state of purity; Imaam An-Nawawi
said: 'The entire Muslim nation agreed in a consensus that it is forbidden to pray behind a person who is not in a state of purity.'
5) He should be sane; a prayer behind a mad person is invalid.
6) He should be able to fulfil the pillars of the prayer like standing, bowing, and prostrating, according to the preponderant opinion of some scholars.
7) He should be able to recite the Faatihah (the opening chapter) and other acts of worship that are required for the prayer to be valid.
There are some details, restrictions and a difference of opinion on some of the above conditions and there is no place to mention them, so if you want more details, you should refer to the books of Fiqh.
Allaah Knows best.
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