Recordings › How to Pray Salah According to the Maliki Madhhab- Mufti Abu Layth · 2 Apr 2017 › Segment 8 of 13

How should I stand in congregational prayer, and should my feet touch my neighbour's?

salat salaah namaz salaat namaaz as-salah al-salah salawat hadeeth ahadith ahaadeeth hadis hadees ahaadith muftis wajib waajib wajibat madina al-madinah madeenah yathrib

How to stand in congregation and how far apart the feet should be

QuestionWritten question · questioner not identifiedAnswered 2 Apr 2017Segment 8 of 13 in the recording2017-04-02-S08

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This segment37:40 to 39:23 · 1 min 43 sGeneral teaching

The answer in brief

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Stand naturally, shoulder to shoulder in a straight line, without squeezing or leaving gaps. Touching feet or joining heels is not required or advised, and the school of Madinah sets no rule on how far apart the feet should be.

In more detail

Asked how to stand when praying in congregation, Mufti Abu Layth says one stands next to the people on either side in a natural manner, shoulder to shoulder in a nice straight line, neither squeezing nor leaving gaps. Joining the heels or touching feet is not required and not advised in the school of Madinah. He says the same applies when praying alone: the school pays no attention to how far apart the feet should be, unlike some schools, and he warns against an obsession with tiny details that makes the prayer mechanical, since the point is a spiritual and natural connection.

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When praying in congregation, how do we stand?

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Mufti Abu Layth says that in congregation one stands naturally shoulder to shoulder in a straight line without joining heels or touching feet, and that the Maliki school pays no attention to how far apart the feet should be.

In his words

“how far apart should your feet be the school of Medina does not pay any attention to these kind of things”

▶ 38:17 Open on YouTube at 38:17

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Transcript

machine37:40 to 39:23 · click a time to seek · dotted terms open the glossary

36:59

the not the obligatory prayers so if you decided to do some na you shouldn't do that if it's actual Sunrise if Sunrise is actually taking place wait till after sunrise and then you can perform that but not the actual subah not the obligatory prayers so if you're woken up late and sunrise is taking place you can still pray in fact you should pray the Hadith says let let him pray once he awakens or remembers okay so that is not a Prohibition to pray any obligatory prayer it's only referring to the na the voluntary kind

37:37

of prayers this is a good question when praying in congregation how do we stand well obviously you stand next to the person either side and just in a natural manner you will stand shoulder Tosh shoulder you will try and keep a nice straight line but you are not under any in fact you're not even advised really to to join the heels or you know to to touch feet or things like this that's not actually required it's not advised within the school of Medina you just stand naturally your feet however they would just be placed in a natural

38:17

stance as if you were just regularly standing that's all um the main thing is you join the shoulders with the people next to you in a way that's natural once again not to squeeze not to be not to leave gaps at the same time just be natural this theme you will find it recurring right throughout the mab of just being natural and that and the same thing occurs when you're praying at home by the way or if you're praying on your own this was this was highlighting if you're praying next to somebody but even on your own how far apart should your feet be the school of Medina does not pay any

38:55

attention to these kind of things it does not call you to pay attention to them I know some schools of law do but the school of Medina emphasizes that things should just be natural just stand that's all you do do not become obsessed about these tiny kind of details which almost make the whole thing too mechanical so the the whole point is to keep a spiritual and a natural connection within Salah this is an interesting question which follows follows up from our video and that is what if you forget to doah so not only have you forgotten

Paragraphs overlapping 37:40 to 39:23. Full text on the recording page.

Cite this segment

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Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment 2017-04-02-S08, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/bin9uqpopma/s/8/ (accessed 1 November 2026)

APA 7

Mufti Abu Layth. (2017, April 2). How should I stand in congregational prayer, and should my feet touch my neighbour's? [Video, segment 2017-04-02-S08, auto-transcribed, may contain errors]. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Retrieved November 1, 2026, from https://muftiabulayth.org/r/bin9uqpopma/s/8/

Chicago author-date

Mufti Abu Layth. 2017. "How should I stand in congregational prayer, and should my feet touch my neighbour's?" Video, segment 2017-04-02-S08, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Recorded April 2, 2017. Accessed November 1, 2026. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/bin9uqpopma/s/8/

BibTeX

@misc{abulayth-2017-04-02-S08,
  author = {Mufti Abu Layth},
  title = {{How should I stand in congregational prayer, and should my feet touch my neighbour's?}},
  year = {2017},
  month = {4},
  date = {2017-04-02},
  howpublished = {\url{https://muftiabulayth.org/r/bin9uqpopma/s/8/}},
  url = {https://muftiabulayth.org/r/bin9uqpopma/s/8/},
  organization = {Mufti Abu Layth Archive},
  urldate = {2026-11-01},
  note = {Segment 2017-04-02-S08, auto-transcribed, may contain errors}
}

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