Applying scent to the prayer mat

28-4-2014 | IslamWeb

Question:

is it permissible to apply scent (atter) on the salat carpet ( jaea namaz)

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Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

If the scent is alcohol free, then there is no harm in applying it to the prayer mat because of the generality of the reported religious evidence about cleaning and applying scent to the places of prayer. ‘Aa'ishah narrated that the Prophet commanded that mosques be set up among houses (i.e. in each neighborhood) and that they be purified and perfumed. [Ahmad, Abu Daawood, and At-Tirmithi]

‘Awn Al-Ma‘bood reads, “priority in perfuming the mosque is to the places where the worshippers pray, and priority in that is to the places of their prostration.”

However, if the perfume contains alcohol, the majority of Muslim scholars consider alcohol ritually impure because it is considered intoxicating wine . It is impermissible to apply an impure substance to the place of prayer because the ritual purity of the place of prayer is one of the due conditions for the validity of the prayer, as is well known.

We would like to point out that insisting on performing the prayer on a prayer mat and not on anything else is not part of Sunnah. Shaykhul-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah was asked: "What about a person who spreads the prayer mat inside the mosque to perform the prayer on it; is it a religious innovation?" He said, “Praise be to Allaah, the Lord of the Worlds. As for praying on a mat, in the sense that the worshipper insists on that and does not perform prayer except on the prayer mat – this was not the way of the first Muslim generations of the Muhaajireen and Ansaar and those who followed them in truth during the time of the Messenger of Allaah . Rather, they used to pray on the ground in his mosque, and none of them had a mat that was used just for prayer.” [Majmoo‘ Al-Fataawa]

Ibn Al-Qayyim considered insisting on praying on the prayer mat as one of the evil schemes of Satan. He wrote, “A person would insist on praying on a prayer mat while the Prophet had never performed the prayer on a special mat and no carpet would be spread for him. Instead, he used to perform prayer on the ground, and perhaps prostrate in mud. He prayed on Haseer (mats made of date-palm leaves or straw, etc) or on whatever is available; if there was nothing spread on the ground, he would pray on the ground.” [Ighaathat Al-Lahfaan]

Allaah Knows best.