The number of persons with which the Friday prayer can be held
28-12-2005 | IslamWeb
Question:
My question is regarding Fatwa 83782, if you don't mind can you give the proof of the Fatwa as my friend is not agreeing with this he says he is not finding anywhere that 3 members can offer Jum'ah. I will be grateful to you if you can help me with strong Dalil. May Allaah bless you with all the good things in the world and Hereafter, Aameen.
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. We ask Allaah to exalt his mention as well as that of his family and all his companions.
We have already clarified in Fatwa 83782 that some scholars, may, Allaah have mercy on them, are of the view that the Friday prayer can be held with the presence of three persons only. This is the view of Abu Yoosuf
from the Hanafi school and one narration from Ahmad, which was considered as the preponderant opinion by Ibn Taymiyyah
. Their evidence is that the condition for the Friday prayer to be held is the presence of a congregation, and three people are a congregation. It is the one who sets a condition that there should be more than three people for the Friday prayer to be held or specifies a number more than three, who should bring the evidence that the Friday prayer is not valid with the above three people. What we have mentioned is in the books of Fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence). Ibn Qudaamah said: 'According to Imaam Ahmad the Friday prayer can be held with three people only, this is the view of Al-Awzaa’i and Abu Thawr as the word Jamaa’ah (group) suggests a congregation. Al-Kaassaani from the Hanafi school said when mentioning the number by which the Friday prayer is held: 'Abu Yoosuf said: 'Two people apart from the Imaam.'
Allaah Knows best.