Chapter: The Worshiper’s Sutrah

Employing a sutrah (prayer-barrier) during the ṣalāh is a sunnah. Some scholars add that it is sunnah only in places where one cannot be certain that people will not walk in front of the worshiper; in the open desert, on rooftops, or anywhere one feels safe from such passing, there is no objection to praying without a sutrah.

The minimum size of a sutrah is a cubit high and about the thickness of a spear-shaft. Anything—be it an animal or a person—whose mischief, playfulness, potential to cause temptation, or distracting movement can reasonably be guarded against may serve as a sutrah without harming the prayer, provided one is safe from its harms.

The worshiper should stand close to his sutrah and not at a distance from it. Nothing that crosses in front of him invalidates the prayer; the prayer is broken only by what nullifies it in principle, such as a state of ritual impurity and the like. No one may pass in front of a worshiper except when he is positioned behind an imam; in that case it does no harm, for a dispensation regarding it has been reported.

Passing in front of a worshiper is gravely disliked. Whoever does so deliberately is sinful, and anyone who persists in it and treats the matter lightly is deemed discredited. The worshiper is obliged to prevent anyone from passing between him and his sutrah if he is the imam or