A Re-examination of the View on the Hindrance of the Prayer Leader Due to Sinfulness, with an Emphasis on Narrations

فقه و اصول (Fiqh va uṣūl)

Article 8, Volume 57, Issue 1 - Serial Number 140, May 2025, Pages 183-205   

Document Type: Original Article

DOI: 10.22067/jfiqh.2024.85230.1682

Author

Hassan Ghanbari Sheikh Shabani^*

Level Four Seminary Graduate, Seminary of Qom, Qom, Iran

Abstract

One of the issues brought up regarding jurisprudential positions and roles, such as emulating a jurist (taqlīd), bearing witness, congregational prayer, etc. is the requirement of justice. There has been major disagreement over the definition of justice and how it is considered a condition (requirement). One of its cases is the position of leading the congregational prayer, in which the majority of jurists consider the imam’s justice a condition (requirement). Others have replaced justice with the hindering effect of sinfulness (māni‘iyyat-i fisq). This disagreement becomes particularly significant when considering individuals with an unknown moral state (majhūl al-ḥāl). According to the former view, it is not permissible to emulate a prayer leader whose moral states are unknown. The latter view, however, considers such practice permissible. The present study, conducted through the descriptive-analytical method and using library resources, concludes that not only there is no evidence supporting the requirement of justice for a leader of congregational prayer in Quran or narrations, but there are also numerous reliable narrations that are often overlooked and clearly support the view that sinfulness serves as a hindering factor.

Keywords

the just person; the sinful; condition of justice; hinderance effect of sinfulness; leader of congregational prayer

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