Sheikh Saleh Bin Fawzan Al-Fawzan of the Board of Senior Ulema and the Permanent Committee for Ifta has said that reserving prayer spaces at the Grand Mosque in Makkah or the Prophet's Mosque in Madina is “haraam”, or forbidden. “It is forbidden to reserve places in the mosques, unless the person has left for urgent reasons and intends to return soon, as otherwise it is tantamount to taking something by force,” Al-Fawzan told Okaz newspaper. “It is also forbidden to rent a reserved place, and the authorities should put a stop to this vice (munkar),” he said. Al-Fawzan was speaking ahead of the final ten days of Ramadan, when mosques are littered with headdresses and prayer carpets by worshippers wishing to reserve their spaces ahead of the rush. Al-Fawzan also advised against showing preference to mosques whose imams are believed to have particularly aesthetically pleasing voices in recitation. “The purpose is to observe devotion,” Al-Fawzan said. “If the intention is to enjoy the beautiful recitation, then the reward could be less.”
