Answered by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
I used to lead my sisters in prayer at home but since I have started working my younger brother leads the jama`ah. He knows his recitation and the general mode of prayer. He is only 8 years old, is it permissible for him to lead the salah?
Walaikum assalam wa rahmatullah,
A condition for the validity of leading prayer is that the imam have reached puberty. As such, it is invalid for your non-baligh brother to lead your sisters in prayer.
Your sisters would have to repeat such prayers.
It is stated in al-Durr al-Mukhtar Sharh Tanwir al-Absar:
“(It is not valid for a man to pray behind a woman or child in all cases) even in funeral and voluntary prayers according to the sounder opinion.”
Ibn Abidin confirmed this in his Radd al-Muhtar, quoting Shaykh al-Islam al-Marghinani’s Hidaya. [Ibn Abidin/Haskafi/Tumurtashi, Radd al-Muhtar `ala al-Durr al-Mukhtar Sharh Tanwir al-Absar, 1.576-577, Ilmiyya ed]
Wassalam,
Faraz Rabbani
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
والصلاة والسلام على سيدنا محمد و على آله و صحبه أجمعين