they would draw lots for it. Thus, if two people come for a place in the first row, and one says, “I have more right to it than you,” while the other says, “I have more right to it,” then it should be said: “In that case, let us draw lots to determine which of us will stand in this vacant spot.”

Among Satan’s tricks with many people today is that they see the first row only half full, yet they begin a second row. Then, when the prayer is about to begin and they are told, “Complete the first row,” they begin looking about in bewilderment. In reality, all of this is due to:

First: profound ignorance.

Second: the fact that some imams pay no attention to this matter—that is, to aligning the worshippers, having them stand close together, and completing the first row and then the next. The instruction to align the rows is a sunnah when there is a need for it—that is, when the row is not straight. It is not an unrestricted sunnah; rather, it should be an effective sunnah, such that if the imam finds someone standing ahead of the others, he says to him, “Step back, so-and-so.” It has already been mentioned that the Messenger ﷺ, when he saw a man whose chest was protruding ahead of the row (1)—and he ﷺ would straighten the rows with his hand, passing it over the shoulders (2) and chests from one end of the row to the other (3). The imam must be patient and train the people to straighten the rows, until they do so. No believer who learns that the Messenger ﷺ said: