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Fatwa CenterCan the edge of the prayer rug be considered a sutrah?
Question
What is meant by the sutrah that the person should use during the prayer?
Is the prayer rug considered a sutrah that a person can pass beyond its end?
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His slave and Messenger.
A sutrah is something that a person puts in front of him during the prayer so as to prevent people from passing before him. It also helps the person observe khushoo’ (humble submission) while performing the actions of the prayer. This is based on a hadith narrated on the authority of Abu Sa‘eed Al-Khudri 
who said that the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, said, “When one of you prays, then let him pray facing a sutrah, and let him draw close to it and prevent anyone from passing in front of him”. [Ibn Majah]
The scholars said, “The rationale behind using a sutrah is to restrict the person from seeing what is behind it and to prevent people from passing in front of him”.
Some scholars view that when a sutrah is not available, a line can replace it. Ibn Qudamah 
said in Al-Mughni:
If the person does not find a sutrah, then he may draw a line and use it as one, as stated by Ahmad, Sa‘eed ibn Jubayr and Al-Awza‘i. Malik disapproved of using a line as a sutrah, and so did Al-Layth ibn Sa‘d and Abu Haneefah. Ash-Shafi‘i held that using a line as a sutrah is valid during his stay in Iraq, but he later disapproved of it after he had moved to Egypt. He said that using a line as a sutrah is invalid unless there is an authentic hadith proving that the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, did so; after which it should be acted upon.
What we view regarding this case is that the edge of the prayer rug can act as a line that is used when the person cannot find a sutrah or is unable to use it. The same applies to using a stick that is to be thrown before the praying person if he is unable to fix it into the ground. Ibn Qudamah said regarding this:
If the person has a stick that he cannot fix, Al-Athram said about this, “I said to Ahmad, ‘A person has a stick that he cannot fix as a sutrah, so he throws it in front of him, should he put it vertically or horizontally?’ Ahmad said, ‘No, horizontally.’ The same was also stated by Sa‘eed ibn Jubayr and Al-Awzaa‘i, while An-Nakha‘i disliked it.” The view that we adopt is that a stick is the same as a line and can replace it. The recommendation to use a line is proven by the hadith that we have narrated.
The hadith that the Hanbali scholars use as evidence regarding this issue is deemed weak by some scholars while others deemed it authentic. Imam Ash-Shafi‘i conditioned the availability of a hadith for the permissibility of using a line.
To sum up, the edge of the prayer rug can substitute the line according to those who adopt the permissibility of using it as a sutrah, based on the above.
Allah knows best.
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