shaykh asrar on praying behind the imams of haramayn

Recently shaykh asrar delivered a lecture on spiritual cleansing (tazkiyyah). Towards the end, when asked to clarify his stance on the taqlid issue, he made some comments regarding praying behind the imams of the Haramayn.

link to speech: https://archive.org/details/TazkiyaShaykhAsrarRashidMasjidENoor2018

These are his words transcribed (from 1:30:00):

when you go to umrah, some people do not pray behind the imams of the haram. why do they not pray? because they know something regarding them, they are dissatisfied regarding their beliefs. is everyone obligated to do that or is everyone obligated according to their knowledge. everyone is obligated according to their knowledge. so when they are going, a man accompanies them who doesn’t even understand the basics of salah. he doesn’t know how many sharait, how many arkan [...] if someone doesn’t know his sharait and arkan of salah and he doesn’t know wajibat of salah, and first time he is going makkah mukarramah, he is very happy - what will be the first thing you tell him, that did you know that you cannot pray behind the imams. will he come back to Preston to stay with you or will he go somewhere else. the answer is he will leave.

so everyone is tasked according to their level. so what some people do, they go on umrah, they tell all their umrah group you cannot pray behind these imams. so whenever salah time comes - by the way people don’t listen to them - when the salah time comes, i’ve seen this first hand, they are found in the hotel lounge, the azan is going on - and by the way the moazzin of al-masjid al-nabawi he’s a sunni muslim - but they’ll be sitting down in the lounge and everyone is going where? to the salah. is this wisdom? the answer is no. they observe me at the time of azan, i am going to the masjid with the people and i am even standing behind their imam and praying. so straight away he’s a sulhkulli. but you will notice even people like al-sayyid irfan shah, when he goes you will see him standing behind the imam. those who are obligated know what is happening, why? ​

because allamah saeed ahmad kazmi wrote a fatwa. he was asked regarding this issue. he said: the people that go to the haram are three categories - number one are the scholars, the ulema, they must follow what they know. if they know the imam has a deviant belief, their prayer is not done if their belief is kufr. if the belief is not kufr, then they must repeat the prayer. the second category is those tullab al-ilm, students of knowledge and the people of knowledge who associate with those people of knowledge and the public who associate with them. the third category of people are the majority of the muslims who do not even understand these issues, their prayers are done.

why are their prayers done? because their similitude is like [...] a man who goes into the desert to pray and he has a group of people. what do you do when you do not know the direction of the qibla, you do taharri - investigating the direction. one man does taharri and he prays north the other one prays south but it’s dark, they can’t see one another. the one facing north leads the prayer. the other one facing south prays behind him. is his prayer done? why is it done, because he doesn’t know regarding the imam facing the wrong direction.

a second example: the imam comes to lead the prayer but the imam has a stain of a big impurity on his trousers or anywhere else that you can imagine. is it unseen? the answer is yes. is the salah done of the people behind him. the answer is yes. now in both cases, if people have knowledge regarding this stain, then is their prayer done? no. if the person has knowledge that the imam is facing a different direction to me then is his prayer done? no. so everyone is tasked according to their ability.​

------------
the fatwa of mawlana saeed ahmad kazmi cited by shaykh asrar doesn’t mention the second category as he does. the second category in the fatwa is regarding those who affirm the fact that the imams oppose part of our creed but are unaware of the heinous manner in which they have.

as a consequence of the speech and his remarks, especially his own action of going to the haram at the time of salah, caused confusion among the public who were present and some even said later that ignorance is indeed bliss. some students asked me whether it is allowed to pray behind the imams of the Haramayn and in their (deobandi/wahabi) masajid in the UK as a result of this speech.

some questions:

1. is it correct that we should not inform the public that they should not pray behind the imams of Haramayn?
2. does it mean that the majority of muslims should be left to pray behind their imams?
3. is it correct, especially for the ulema to go to the main masajid in haramayn at jama’at time? or for them to stand behind the imams even if they are not truly praying?
4. is it correct to say the salah of the public who are unaware of the deviance of the imam is correct without being told to repeat it?
5. If, as he says, the ulema (which would include him) know of the deviance of the imams of the Haramayn, why would he go to the masjid and stand behind their imam and pray?

from fatawa ridawiyyah:
without a doubt, Salah behind a ghayr muqallid is disliked, prohibited and necessary to avoid (lazim al-ihtiraz). wherever he (ie the ghayr muqallid) is an imam and one is not capable of stopping him from leading, then a sunni should follow a sunni imam with sound belief somewhere else, even in jumu’ah if one can find another place. and if due to some constraint (majburi) one prayed or after praying he became aware, then repeat the salah even if the time has elapsed and even if some time has passed. [fatawa ridawiyyah 6/670]