Dedicating a special place in the Masjid for some people to offer Salah therein

A: If the said person wants to stand behind the Imam (the one who leads congregational Prayer) and is keen on that place for its nearness to the Imam, there is nothing wrong with sitting in it as long as he preceded others to it. Rather, it is prescribed for the Muslim to be eager to stand in the first row and close to the Imam, as the Prophet (peace be upon him) said in the Sahih (authentic) Hadith: If people were to know what is in the call to prayer and the first row, then they found no other way but to draw lots over it, they would draw lots. This is on the condition that he does not make another person get up from this place, if he preceded him to it. (Part No. 5; Page No. 259) As for insisting on a certain place and forbidding others from sitting in it or asking others to get up from it, this is impermissible, because this is a kind of reserving for one’s own use something they do not own. Masjids are the Houses of Allah and anyone who precedes another to a place, has more right to it. Furthermore, it has been authentically narrated on the authority of Ibn ‘Umar that he said: The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) forbade that a man should make his brother get up from his seat in order to sit there. It is prescribed that those who stand directly behind the Imam in the first row are the knowledgeable and the wise people in order to correct where the Imam might go wrong or forget, for the Prophet (peace be upon him) said in the Hadith narrated by Muslim: Let those (standing) nearest to me of you (in congregational prayer) be the mature and the wise, then those next to them, then those next to them. May Allah grant us success. May peace and blessings be upon our Prophet Muhammad, his family, and Companions.