the ways of venerating Allah the Exalted is to honour the elderly Muslim, the bearer of the Qur’an who neither goes to excess with regard to it nor turns away from it, and to honour the just ruler.” A ḥasan (good) ḥadith recorded by Abū Dāwūd.

[Commentary]

These ḥadiths point to what the author—may Allah have mercy on him—mentioned earlier about honouring the people of knowledge and those of great merit. Among them is the ḥadith of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd (may Allah be pleased with him) in which the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “Let those among you who are mature and possess sound judgment stand nearest to me, then those who come after them,”—he said this three times—“and beware of the commotion of the markets.” In his words, “Let those among you …,” the lām is the lām of command; the meaning is that in prayer the ones who should step forward are those who are mature and intelligent.

The phrase ulu al-aḥlām (“those who are mature”) means those who have reached puberty, i.e. adults, and al-nuhā (“sound judgment”) is the plural of nuhyah, meaning intellect—i.e. the intelligent. Therefore, the people who ought to come forward in the prayer are rational adults, because they are better able than children and the like to grasp what the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) says or does. For that reason the Prophet encouraged them to come forward until they are directly behind the imam.

The ḥadith does not mean that only those who are mature and possess sound judgment may stand immediately behind the imam such that we expel children from the first row; this is not permissible. Children may be removed from the first row only if they cause some disturbance; if they do not cause any disturbance, then whoever reaches a spot first has the greater right to it.

There is a difference between the prophetic wording being: “Let no one stand nearest to me except those who are mature…”