The imamate of an ignorant thief

Question

Zayd is an imam and he is unlearned: he has only read the Qur’an, and even that he recites incorrectly, and he does not know by what kind of recitation the prayer becomes fasid (invalid) and by what kind it does not. If he gets the chance, he also steals. Washing the dead is his profession. He performs another nikah on top of a previous nikah. If he comes to the mosque, he prays; if he is somewhere else, he misses the prayer. The people feel aversion towards him.

Answer

If these things are really present in him and there is a man better than him and fit for the imamate, then appointing him as imam is makruh tahrimi; the better person should be made imam. If this man repents of these things and does not commit such prohibited acts in future, and also recites the Qur’an correctly, then his imamate is not prohibited.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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