the prayer itself; therefore, if someone does perform the prayer there he is not required to repeat it. Rather—Allah knows best—it is, as we have been told… He then cited the ḥadīth of Ibn ʿUmar through the chain of Ibn Dīnār, which alludes to the reason for the prohibition in the Prophet’s ﷺ words:
“I fear that what afflicted them may befall you.”
Admittedly, the outward sense of the prohibition indicates that prayer there is unlawful; yet al-Khattābī said in al-Maʿālim:
“I know of no scholar who has declared the prayer in the land of Babylon to be forbidden.”

Ninth: A raised spot on which the imam stands, higher than the place of the followers. It is not permissible for him to lead the prayer from such a place, because “the Messenger of Allah ﷺ forbade the imam to stand on something while the people are behind him,” meaning lower than he is.

The report is narrated from Abū Masʿūd al-Badri, who said: “He forbade…” and so on.

Al-Dāraqutnī recorded it through the chain of Ziyād ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ṭuffal, from al-Aʿmash, from Ibrāhīm, from Hammām, on Abū Masʿūd’s authority. He remarked, “No one, to our knowledge, transmits it except Ziyād al-Kabbāʾ, nor is it narrated by anyone besides Hammām.”

I say: al-Ḥākim also produced it through this very chain in a more complete wording, from Hammām. He related that Hudhayfah once led the people in prayer in al-Madāʾin, stepped forward onto a raised platform, whereupon Abū Masʿūd seized the front of his garment and pulled him back. After the prayer was over, Abū Masʿūd said to him, “Do you not know that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ …”