Two persons have been arrested for reserving prayer spaces and renting them out to worshippers at Isha and Taraweeh prayer times. Yusuf Al-Wabil of Two Holy Mosques Services Affairs said the men, both expatriate workers, were detained as authorities at the Grand Mosque stepped up their work during the final ten days of Ramadan. “The practice has diminished a lot this year,” Al-Wabil said. “However, we will show no lenience to anyone caught.” All persons who have been arrested for renting out prayer spaces have been foreigners, Al-Wabil said, adding that culprits are identified through a period of surveillance of individual carpets and persons claiming them beginning half an hour before the start of prayers. Sheikh Saleh Bin Fawzan Al-Fawzan of the Board of Senior Ulema and the Permanent Committee for Ifta ruled last week that reserving prayer spaces at the Grand Mosque in Makkah or the Prophet's Mosque in Madina was “haraam”, or forbidden. “It is forbidden to reserve places in the mosques, unless the person has left for urgent reasons and intends to return soon, as otherwise it is tantamount to taking something by force,” Al-Fawzan told Okaz newspaper on Thursday. “It is also forbidden to rent a reserved place, and the authorities should put a stop to this vice (munkar).” The General Presidency of Affairs of the Grand Mosque has, meanwhile, prepared areas for I'tikaf prayer on the ground floor of the Grand Mosque for 30,000 people, and two curtained sections have been allocated for women on the right side of King Fahd Gate. The areas are provided with water, Qur'ans and loudspeakers for women to hear the seminars and fatwas.
