A woman walked in front of our row when we were praying in jamaa’ah

Question

Praise be to Allah.

With
regard to the idea that a person’s prayer is invalidated if a woman,
donkey or black dog passes in front of him, this is correct.

It
was reported from ‘Abd-Allaah ibn al-Saamit that Abu Dharr said: “The
Messenger of Allaah
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said:
‘If any one of you stands up to pray, then he has a sutrah [an item
placed in front of a praying person as a “screen”] if he has something
the height of the back of a saddle in front of him. If he does not have
something the height of the back of a saddle in front of him, then his
prayer is invalidated if a donkey or a woman or a black dog passes in
front of him.’” I [‘Abd-Allaah] asked, “O Abu Dharr, what is the
difference between a black dog and a red or yellow dog?” He said, “O
son of my brother, I asked the Messenger of Allaah
(peace and
blessings of Allaah be upon him) the same question, and he said, ‘The
black dog is a shaytaan (devil).’” (Narrated
by Muslim, 510).

The
height of the back of a saddle is one cubit or 2/3 of a cubit.

But
this ruling applies only when one of these three pass in front of the
imaam or a person who is praying on his own, not when they pass between
the rows of a congregation praying behind the imaam during prayer in
jamaa’ah, as the sister who asked the question thinks.

The
evidence for that is the report in which ‘Abd-Allaah ibn ‘Abbaas said:
“I came along riding on a female donkey one day when I had just reached
the age of puberty. The Messenger of Allaah
(peace and blessings of
Allaah be upon him) was leading the people in prayer in Mina, without any
kind of wall in front of him. I passed in front of part of the row, then I
got down and sent the donkey to graze, and joined the row, and no one
rebuked me for that.” (Narrated
by al-Bukhaari, 472; Muslim, 504)

Imaam
al-Bukhaari gave this hadeeth the heading of “Sutrat
al-Imaam sutrat man khalfahu (the sutrah of the imaam is the
sutrah of those behind him).” This hadeeth clearly proves our point,
which is that the person who is praying behind the imaam does not have to
have a sutrah, and it does not matter what passes in front of him,
especially since Ibn ‘Abbaas passed in front of them with his donkey,
which is one of the things which invalidates prayer if it passes in front
of the imaam or a person who is praying on his own.

Ibn
‘Abd al-Barr said:

This
hadeeth – i.e., the hadeeth narrated by al-Bukhaari (487) and Muslim
(505) from Abu Sa’eed al-Khudri which says “If any one of you is
praying, he should not let anyone pass in front of him. Let him push him
away as much as he can, and if he insists then let him fight him, for he
is nothing but a shaytaan (devil)” – indicates that it is makrooh to
pass in front of a person who is praying if he is praying on his own and
without a sutrah. The same ruling applies to the imaam if he is praying
without a sutrah. But with regard to the person who is praying behind the
imaam, it does not matter what passes in front of him, just as it does not
matter what passes in front of the imaam or person praying alone if it
passes behind the sutrah. The sutrah of the imaam is also the sutrah of
those who are praying behind him.

We
say this concerning the imaam and the person who prays alone, because the
Prophet
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said, “If any
one of you is praying…” According to the scholars, this means praying
on his own, because of the hadeeth of Ibn ‘Abbaas. Hence we say that the
person who is praying behind the imaam does not have to push away the
person who passes in front of him, because Ibn ‘Abbaas said:“I came along riding on a female donkey one day when I had just
reached the age of puberty. The Messenger of Allaah
(peace and
blessings of Allaah be upon him) was leading the people in prayer in Mina,
without any kind of wall in front of him. I passed in front of part of the
row, then I got down and sent the donkey to graze, and joined the row, and
no one rebuked me for that.”

(al-Tamheed,
4/187)

On
this basis, the sister who asked this question, and other people, do not
have to push away anyone who passes in front of them if they are praying
behind the imaam, and there is no sin on the person who passes in front of
the row if this is donefor a
reason. Pushing a person away and preventing them from passing in front is
to be done by the imaam or the person who is praying alone, if a person
wants to pass between him and his sutrah. And Allaah knows best.