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The purpose of pushing the passer back is two-fold: to prevent any disruption of the prayer and to spare the passer from falling into sin.
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The previously mentioned permission to repel or even fight the passer, and the exemption from liability for any resulting harm, applies only to the worshipper who has placed a screen before him. Whoever neglects to set up a screen enjoys no such protection, for he is the one at fault—as the hadith itself makes clear.
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Every aggressor is to be repelled by beginning with the gentlest measure and then proceeding to the next. One may not leap to harshness until every mild option has been exhausted.
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The majority of jurists hold that if the passer has already crossed and the worshipper did not stop him, the worshipper should not call him back, for that would oblige the man to cross a second time.
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Ibn Daqīq al-ʿĪd states that if the passer has no alternative route, the sin rests solely on the worshipper; but if an alternative exists and the worshipper deliberately placed himself in the passer’s way, they share the sin.
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Any movement performed during the prayer for the sake of the prayer itself neither diminishes it nor invalidates it, because such a movement is permissible.
Hadith Three
ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAbbās (may Allah be pleased with them both) said: “I approached riding a jenny (1), and at that time I was nearing the age of puberty. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ was leading the people in prayer at Mina without a wall in front of him. I passed in front of part of the row, dismounted, let the jenny graze, and joined the row; no one objected to me.
Unfamiliar expressions
• atān: the female of the donkey. The word may be pronounced with either fatḥ or kasr on the initial hamza, though the fatḥ is more common; it is an adjective for donkey.
• nāhaztu al-ḥulm: I had almost reached puberty—that is what he meant at that time.
• tar-taʿu: with a ḍammah on the ʿayn, meaning “it was grazing.”
Al-Jawharī says in al-Ṣiḥāḥ: “ratʿat al-māshiyah” means that the livestock grazed freely, eating as much as it wished.
Overall meaning
ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAbbās (may Allah be pleased with him) reports that when he was with the Prophet ﷺ at Mina during the Farewell Pilgrimage, he came