Does a window grille count as a sutra?

Question

In a mosque, at the front on the left side, a grille (window) is fitted at a height of seventeen girah (a unit of length, 1/16 of a gaz, ≈ 5.7 cm) above the ground outside, four feet long and two and a half feet wide; and another grille is fitted in front of the imam in the mihrab, at a height of one and a half gaz (a unit of length, about a yard, ≈ 0.9 m) above the ground outside, seventeen inches long and eleven inches wide, for light.

Answer

If the bars of the grille are raised one cubit — that is, two hand-spans — above the floor of the mosque, and are also as thick as a finger, then it is permissible without karaha for men and women to pass in front of it while someone is praying inside the mosque in line with the grille, whether alone or in congregation.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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