What distance between the imam and the follower prevents validity

Question

(1) In those places where a gap between the imam and the followers the size of an ox-cart or the like invalidates the prayer, does the same gap between two rows also invalidate the prayer? (2) In some rulings the intervening gap is mentioned in one place as a passageway, in another as [room for] an ox-cart to pass, and in another as [room for] two rows to fit in between. Is one and the same distance meant by the gaps of these three things, or different ones?

Answer

(1) If the congregation is held outside a mosque, for example in an open field, then such a gap there prevents [the following]. (2) One and the same is meant.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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