Q. We are on security duty in an army post, which is around 30 kilometers away from the nearest place where Friday prayer is held. There are about 250 of us, and we are here on more or less permanent basis. We cannot go to Friday prayer at such a distance. Instead we arranged to hold it on camp, but every now and then someone comes and says that Friday prayer is not valid in our place, and it is discontinued. We read your ruling to some factory workers, telling them to organize Friday prayer on site, because they are at a similar distance from the nearest town. We consulted a local fatwa council and they said that we should not organize Friday prayer. Could you please clarify this confusion?

M.S. Khan, Balochistan

A. The first point to consider is the reason why those people come and tell you that you cannot organize the Friday prayer at your camp. You have not specified this in your letter, but I imagine that they have based their verdict on that you need the Muslim ruler’s permission to organize Friday prayers at your place, or on that your camp is not a village or a settlement of human habitation. Moreover, they make the basis of their ruling the views expressed in their school of Fiqh, which is most probably the Hanafi school. We have no problem with any of the schools of Fiqh Muslims follow, not only the four major ones, but the other ones with lesser following as well. However, we need to remember two very important points: 1) the rulings of these schools were mostly recorded over a thousand years ago; and 2) in each school, later scholars gave rulings that may be contrary to the standard ones in the same school.

Both these consideration are of great importance. The second one makes it clear that later scholars, who followed the same methodology, arrive at a different ruling because they may have a point of evidence that had eluded earlier scholars, or because certain aspects of life were given more importance in their own time. Some people are wary when we speak about changing times requiring different rulings; but this is agreed by all scholars of note, because God has given us a broad measure of choice, and what we do within this area is acceptable to Him. This is what basically makes Islam easy to follow in all situations.

Different schools of Fiqh stipulate different conditions for the validity of Friday prayers. For example, some stipulate that the minimum number of worshippers should be 40, while others give different figures, such as 3, 4, 7, 12, 20, 30, 50 or 70. Some stipulate that it should be in a city, or a town, or a village of so many thousand inhabitants.

Scholars have discussed these conditions and proved that they really do not carry any sanction from the Qur’an or the Sunnah. What they agree on is that it is a binding duty on every Muslim male who is adult, and in a state of health that enables him to attend it. Certain conditions exempt people from attending it, such as traveling, illness, etc. It must be offered in congregation, which means that it can be offered by only two people, if that is the number available. This is based on the Hadith that states: “Two or more make up a congregation...”

From what the reader says, this camp includes a mosque where congregational prayers are held regularly. Those on duty do not attend the congregation, but offer their prayers later. There are 250 people, most of whom will attend the Friday prayer, unless they are on duty. Since the duty is one of security, it is a valid reason for exemption. The choice is between organizing Friday prayer or not. The answer is that they must organize it, because Friday prayer is one of the main rituals of Islamic worship, and it must not be neglected in any place where there are a group of Muslims. In fact, they do not need to ask anyone for a view or permission, because they are expected to offer this prayer and they cannot travel 30 kilometers for this purpose. If anyone says that they should not, then that person should provide the evidence for his ruling. The evidence must be from the Qur’an or the Hadith. It should not be from the views of any scholar, whoever he may be.

As I said earlier, we often quote a view from a particular school of Fiqh, which undoubtedly did a great service to Islam by providing methodologies for deducing rulings on a large variety of situations. However, these views were recorded several centuries ago. We today live in a totally different world. The major scholars who founded these schools lived in a Muslim state, where the Caliph was the one who either led the Friday prayer, or ensured that it is organized. In our world, few of the rulers attend Friday prayer, let alone think about its organization. Where would you get permission for organizing it in your camp? The fact is that you have that permission, evidenced as it is by allocating a room or space for your regular prayers.

If you look at other situations, you find people in the West organizing Friday prayers at work, wherever a few Muslims happen to be working. Do we tell them that they should not organize Friday prayer, which is a major ritual of Islamic worship? To suggest that is ludicrous. In fact, whenever scholars from the Muslim world visit them, they attend their Friday prayers and praise them for organizing it.

You should not hesitate to organize your Friday prayer. In fact you must do so. We want Friday prayers to be organized in every army camp throughout the Muslim world. The day will come, God willing, when it will be so.

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