Praying behind the one who wears gold and wears below ankles


Question :

The Imam is a reciter but he wears gold and his clothes are below his ankles ?

Answer :

You’ve got the answer [already], may Allah bless you, but after that answer I say that he should chose a righteous, scholarly, pious Imam. If he prays behind a man like the one who adorns himself with things that Allah has forbidden then he [i.e., the one wearing such things] is sinful and the sin is on him due to the statement of our Lord, the Mighty and Majestic, in His Book, “… and no bearer of burdens shall bear the burden of another …” [Al-An’aam 6:164], as for the prayer, it has no connection to such acts of disobedience done by this Imam [in question]. So the Imam who shaves his beard, for example, or prays in trousers etc., then the sin on him, and nothing is on those who pray behind him.

Answered by : Shaykh Al Albani