Mawqif al-Imam wal-Mamum
- Author died
- 438 AH
- Editions
- al-Murāqabah al-Thaqāfiyyah, Idārat al-Masājid, Muḥāfaẓat al-‘Āṣimah, Kuwait
Mawqif al-Imam wal-Mamum (The Stance of the Imam and the Follower) is a treatise on Islamic jurisprudence by the Shafi'i scholar Abu Muhammad al-Juwayni (d. 438 AH / 1047 CE), dedicated to the spatial rules and conditions governing congregational prayer across various settings .
Background and Purpose
Al-Juwayni composed the treatise in response to a request from pious notables who asked him to compile a series of chapters detailing the positioning of the prayer leader (al-imam) and the follower (al-ma'mum), examining the places where congregational prayers are held, and recording the legal cases and rulings transmitted from the early authorities (al-salaf) .
Structure and Contents
The work is organized into twelve chapters (fasl), addressing the spatial alignment and validity of following the leader in distinct environments :
- Mosques (al-masajid): Discusses the single condition for validly following the leader inside a mosque—namely the follower's awareness of the leader's prayer through seeing him, hearing his takbir, or hearing or seeing an intermediary (al-mutarjim)—regardless of distance, elevation, or intervening structures such as walls, water installations, or partitions .
- Open wilderness (al-sahari) .
- Thoroughfares and roads (qawari' al-tariq) .
- Residences and inns (al-masakin wal-khanat) .
- Endowed madrasas and Sufi lodges (al-madaris wal-khanqahat) .
- Ships on water and coastlines (al-sufun 'ala al-ma' wal-sahil) .
- Plain ground adjacent to mountains (al-sahl ma'a al-jabal) .
- Open wilderness connected to a mosque (al-sahra' idha ittasalat bil-masjid) .
- Roads connected to a mosque (al-tariq idha ittasalat bil-masjid) .
- Private estates connected to a mosque (al-amlak idha ittasalat bil-masjid) .
- Rooftops in conjunction with ground level (al-sath ma'a al-ard) .
- Positioning around the Ka'bah (mawqif al-imam wal-ma'mum hawla al-ka'bah) .
Reception and Transmission
The attribution of the text to Abu Muhammad al-Juwayni is affirmed across biographical and bibliographical literature, including mentions by Ibn Khallikan in Wafayat al-A'yan, Taj al-Din al-Subki in Tabaqat al-Shafi'iyyah al-Kubra, Jamal al-Din al-Isnawi, al-Dawudi, Haji Khalifa in Kashf al-Zunun, and Isma'il Pasha al-Baghdadi in Hadiyyat al-'Arifin . Al-Subki cited excerpts from the book in his entries on al-Juwayni and his teacher Abu Bakr al-Qaffal al-Marwazi . Later jurists, such as Badr al-Din al-Zarkashi and Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti, also cited legal rulings from it regarding the status of mosques constructed through collective contribution .
The treatise is preserved in an undated manuscript held at the Alexandria Municipality Library (recorded as photograph no. 2795/d at the Islamic University of Madinah), spanning eleven large folios in Naskh script . It was edited by Faysal Yusuf al-'Ali and published in Kuwait in 1425 AH / 2004 CE under the auspices of the Capital Governorate Mosque Administration .
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