some ppl .. mostly arabs i have noticed.. while praying if someone crosses them in foront they hold up their hand and postion it like saying to stay back.. now i know that crossing someone in the front while he is praying is not good .. u can cross em only if u are 4 saf away.. but stopping ppl from crossing while praying does not sound alrite .. cause the main reason of rpraying is to establish direct link to Allah :swt: if u stop someone that means u arent paying attention in your prayer..
The following is somewhat related to what you have asked. Hope it helps to some extent, insha’Allah.
**Neglecting praying facing a sutrah. **
The sutrah is an object, such as a wall, or a post, which a person faces while praying. Or any other object which a person places to serve as a sutrah, by putting it on the ground in order that no one may cross in front of him while praying. The Messenger of Allah SAWS said: Pray facing a sutrah, and let no one cross in front of you while praying. If he insists, then prevent him by force because he is accompanied by shaitan15.
And he said: When one of you prays facing a sutrah, let him pray close to it so that shaitan may not be able to nullify his prayer16.
The above tradition indicates clearly that shaitan crosses in front of a praying person who prays without a sutrah, causing his prayer to be null and void without being aware of it. Even if one prays in an open field, he should place a sutrah in front of him.
Allah says: (Verily) He (the shaitan) and his own people see you while you do not see them (7.27).
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*Originally posted by Sadiyah: *
The above tradition indicates clearly that shaitan crosses in front of a praying person who prays without a sutrah, causing his prayer to be null and void without being aware of it.
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This is very interesting. I am pretty sure most of us were unfamiliar about it. Jazak Allah for posting this.
Coming back to the topic raised in the first post, so is it correct to say that when those Arabs are praying without a Sutrah, they try to keep their prayers by stopping anyone from passing in front of them. Although, they can only stop people who are crossing within their arm's range, so not sure if it suffices.
If someone neglects to place a sutrah before themselves there doesn’t appear to be any problem in passing in front of him beyond the area where he prostrates… If someone tries to pass between you and your sutrah you should prevent that person from so doing… if they pass beyond that (whether you have a sutrah or not), then no problem because as one shaykh explained: “The one who is praying has no right to anything more than what he needs for his prayer. So he does not have the right to prevent the people from (using space) that he does not need.”
