The imam leading the prayer in his teacher’s presence!

Question

A certain man is an imam, a hafiz and a qari, of an appearance conforming to the Shari‘a, extremely pious and righteous; [his] teacher, his father and all the worshippers are very pleased [with him]. One day the imam insistently had his teacher, a venerable elder of 70 years, lead the maghrib prayer. Two or three muqtadis did not pray behind him (for an inner, hidden reason); they went elsewhere and performed maghrib there, and afterwards told the imam not to have his teacher lead the prayer.

Answer

The very notion is wrong that if the student leads the prayer in the presence of the teacher, the teacher has thereby been dishonoured — especially when the teacher, even at the student’s request, does not wish to be the imam. However, harbouring resentment in the heart without a shar‘i reason is very bad.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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