Question: What is the ruling on praying in a mosque belonging to the people of innovation? How should I pray if there is no mosque of Ahl as-Sunnah in the town? Is it valid for me to pray with my wife at home?
Shaykh Rabīʿ ibn Hādī ʿUmayr al-Madkhalī (d. 1447 AH/2025 CE) ؒ answered:
No. If there is a mosque, pray in it, even with the people of innovation. ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿUmar used to pray behind Najdah, the Khārijī, and al-Bukhārī cited this as evidence. Congregational prayer is a great matter and must not be abandoned for something like this.
Among the people of innovation are those whose condition is concealed. If a person’s condition is concealed, pray behind him. If it becomes clear that he is an innovator, explain the truth to him. If his innovation constitutes disbelief and he persists in it, do not pray behind him, because he becomes a disbeliever after the proof has been established against him.
This means that he practises an innovation that constitutes disbelief, such as calling upon someone other than Allah , slaughtering for someone other than Allah , seeking rescue from someone other than Allah , or denying the Divine Attributes. If he practises such innovations, and you have debated with him and clarified the truth using Allah’s words, the words of His Messenger and the words of the Salaf, yet he persists stubbornly, then do not pray behind him.
However, if his condition is concealed and he does not practise these innovations that constitute disbelief and misguidance, pray behind him.
References
Al-Bukhārī, Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl (d. 256 AH/870 CE). Citation of Ibn ʿUmar’s congregational prayer, as mentioned by Shaykh Rabīʿ.
Al-Madkhalī, Rabīʿ ibn Hādī ʿUmayr (d. 1447 AH/2025 CE). Answer to the question about praying in a mosque of the people of innovation, in the Arabic collection of answers on the author’s website, PDF p. 17. The collection states that Fawwāz al-Jazāʾirī compiled it and presented it to the shaykh, dated 23 Dhū al-Ḥijjah 1427 AH, attribution links to fatwā no. 214.
