Following the imam from the shoe-removal area

Question

One foot below the ablution area there is a strip of ground about two metres wide for taking off shoes — shoes are removed here. There is a line of taps here attached to a wall one metre high; ablution is performed here too. Beyond this one-metre wall there is a place where the mu'adhdhin and others sleep and other belongings of the mosque are kept. This place is at a distance of about four rows from the mosque courtyard; in between is the shoe-removal area, with ablution places on both sides.

Answer

This shoe-removal area is a public passage (tariq 'amm) outside the mosque. Its merely being a passage does not prevent the following (iqtida'); however, this place is not the mosque but outside the mosque, and outside the mosque an empty space the size of four rows also prevents the following.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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