Q: In the name of God, The Most Compassionate, The Most Merciful
The office of the Grand Ayatollah Sistani
Officials of our country (an Arab country) have made the offering of congregational prayers in Mosques and the like conditional on observing a distance of two meters between each person in a row, and also a line between two rows of worshipers must be placed empty in front and behind. Is the congregational prayer with the above-mentioned description concluded in the Fatwa of the Grand Ayatollah Sistani?
The office of the Grand Ayatollah Sistani
Officials of our country (an Arab country) have made the offering of congregational prayers in Mosques and the like conditional on observing a distance of two meters between each person in a row, and also a line between two rows of worshipers must be placed empty in front and behind. Is the congregational prayer with the above-mentioned description concluded in the Fatwa of the Grand Ayatollah Sistani?
A: Assalamu Alaikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuhu
There is nothing wrong with a distance of 120 centimeter between the place of each worshipper and other worshippers in the same line, and also between the place of prostration of a person and the place of prostration of the other person who stands in front of him/her, but if the distance is, for example, two meters, the validity to follow is the place of the problem