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What is the ruling on jumping over the sutrah or over a prostrating worshiper during prayer, and is this considered to invalidate the prayer and necessitate sin?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Taking a sutra (barrier) for the worshipper is legislated for several reasons, including: preventing passersby, and restraining the gaze from what is beyond it. If jumping over it distracts the worshipper, it is preferable to pass behind it. Similarly, jumping over the worshipper is distracting to him, and it is akin to passing directly in front of him, which is prohibited. Scholars have appended to the prohibition of passing directly in front of the worshipper anything that distracts him. It is understood from the words of the Shafi'is that jumping over the sutra or passing over the worshipper's back is forbidden. Whereas Ibn Hazm explicitly permitted passing over the sutra. The first opinion is more cautious and further removes distraction from the worshipper.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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