but it has a supporting report from the hadith of Anas ibn Malik that strengthens it. It is narrated by ‘Abd al-Hamid ibn Mahmud, who said:

“We prayed with Anas ibn Malik on Friday, and we were pressed toward the columns, so we moved forward and backward. Anas said: ‘During the time of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, we used to avoid this.’”

It was recorded by Abu Dawud, al-Nasa’i, al-Tirmidhi, Ibn Hibban, al-Hakim, and others, with an authentic chain of transmission, as I demonstrated in Sahih Abi Dawud (677).

I say: This hadith is an explicit text establishing that one should not form a row between the columns, and that one is obliged to move either forward or backward.

Ibn al-Qasim recorded in al-Mudawwanah (1/106), and al-Bayhaqi (3/104), through Abu Ishaq, from Ma‘di Karib, from Ibn Mas‘ud, that he said:

“Do not form rows between the columns.”

Al-Bayhaqi said:

“This—and Allah knows best—is because the column comes between them and prevents the row from being joined.”

Malik said:

“There is no harm in forming rows between the columns if the mosque is crowded.”

In al-Mughni by Ibn Qudamah (2/220), it states:

“It is not disliked for the imam to stand between the columns, but it is disliked for those praying behind him, because they divide their rows. Ibn Mas‘ud and al-Nakha‘i regarded it as disliked, and this was also narrated from Hudhayfah and Ibn ‘Abbas. Ibn Sirin, Malik, the proponents of legal opinion, and Ibn al-Mundhir permitted it, because there is no evidence prohibiting it.

“Our evidence is the report narrated from Mu‘awiyah ibn Qurrah ... and because the columns divide the row. But if the row is small, no wider than the space between two columns, it is not disliked, since the columns do not divide it.”