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What is the ruling on someone other than the preacher leading the congregational prayer after the call to prayer (Iqamah)?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

It is from the Sunnah that the Imam who delivers the Friday sermon also leads the prayer, and it is recommended that the one who made the Adhan also make the Iqama. It is stipulated for the sermon that it be a sermon عرفاً (customarily understood as such), and the majority of scholars do not stipulate the recitation of the Quran in it, contrary to Al-Shafi'i who made the recitation of a verse obligatory. The conditions for the validity of the Friday sermon are seven: Dhuhr time, preceding the prayer, standing, sitting between the two sermons, purity from major and minor impurities, covering the awrah, and raising the voice so that forty people of full capacity can hear it. If the Khatib delivers what suffices as a sermon, then it is valid, and the imamate of a less virtuous person is valid even if a more virtuous person is present. And whoever’s prayer is valid, his imamate is valid. However, it is better for the person mentioned to step aside from delivering the sermon if there is someone more competent than him, so that the listeners may benefit, and he should beware of leading people in prayer when they dislike him. And it is from the Sunnah that the most knowledgeable of the people in the Book of Allah leads them in prayer; if they are equal, then the most knowledgeable of them in the Sunnah; if they are equal, then the earliest of them in Hijra; if they are equal, then the earliest of them in accepting Islam. And a man should not lead another man in prayer in his domain.

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

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