and needs to ride, then being gentle with himself is preferable to causing himself hardship.

“And he draws near to the imam,” …

His statement, “and he draws near to the imam,” means that drawing near to the imam is also from the sunnah.

The evidence for this is the Prophet’s statement, peace and blessings be upon him: “Let those among you who possess maturity and understanding stand closest to me.” (1) When he saw some people remaining behind in the mosque instead of coming forward, he said: “People will continue to hold back until Allah causes them to be held back.” (2) At the very least, then, remaining behind rather than taking the foremost places is disliked, for such wording constitutes a warning from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. This applies not only to this particular deed, but to all deeds: when a person does not have in his heart a love of being first in doing good, he will remain sluggish at all times. As Allah, exalted is He, says:

“And We will turn away their hearts and their eyes, just as they refused to believe in it the first time, and We will leave them to wander blindly in their transgression.” [al-An‘am]

Therefore, whenever an opportunity for worship presents itself, one should act upon it and hasten towards it, lest he accustom himself to laziness and lest Allah, exalted is He, hold him back.

Issue: The sunnah indicates that the right side of a row is better than the left, when the two sides are close or equal. However, when there is a distance, the sunnah indicates that the nearer left side is better.

The evidence is that when there were three people praying in congregation, the imam would stand between the two men (3). Then this was abrogated, and the imam began to stand in front.