Less Than 40, No Jumu'ah

Munyatul Musolli 19th October 2008

Responsibilities Within Community
People of authority are responsible to make sure that the common folks learn how to perform solah correctly. Everybody should learn at least how to recite Fatihah and identify which elements are rukun and which are not. The authorities are entitled to use force if necessary. Scholars and people of knowledge are under obligation to teach, because in some cases a handful of ignorant people could cause the whole Jumu’ah to become invalid.

As much as we show anger towards anybody who ruins our property, we should show even more anger towards folks who take their solah carelessly.

If there are not enough qualified people to make up the 40-congregant minimum, then it is not sinful to skip Friday solah for that community. In fact it is compulsory that everybody perform Zuhur instead. However the authority must force the ignorant ones to learn day and night. There are ulama who take this issue even more seriously - saying it is haram for the authority to sit alone performing worship, while neglecting to educate his people.

Indeed it has been an ittifaq (agreement among Shafi’i scholars) that Jumu’ah is not valid until there are 40 qualified congregants. There is a weak position that Jumu’ah could be performed with only 3 congregants – we really should steer away from this. It has been an ikhtilaf (disagreement among scholars) whether Imam Shafi’i *really* took that position.

Refuting Other (Lame) Excuse
Some crafty Muslim may give excuse that he is following (doing taqlid) opinion of Imam Abu Hanifah (rh) in performing Jumu’ah with 3 people, or taqlid on Imam Malik (rh) doing Jumu’ah with 8, or 12, or 20 people. In this case his Jumu’ah is still invalid unless he follows the Jumu’ah and solah requirements exactly as demanded by those mazhabs.

Mixing up acts of worship according to different mazhabs is called ‘talfiq mazhab’ and is not allowed to a common Muslim. A Shafi’i follower has no business assuming acts of worship as recommended by other mazhab while being careless to educate himself with Shafi’i rulings. It would be very bad to the whole community if they perform Jumu'ah which is invalid due to failure to observe the rules. Add to this the sin of abandoning Zuhur.

Safeguard Your Obligatory Solah
Showing disregard towards demands of religion – particularly solah – is the worst kind of defiance, the worst kind of sin among major sins, the most degenerate among the haraams. It has been conveyed to us that a Muslim who has abandoned his solah is no longer a Muslim.

Said Rasulullah (saw):

العهدالذي بيننا و بينهم الصلاة فمن تركهافقد كفر

The pledge that is between us and them is to perform solah. So whoever abandons
solah has become a disbeliever.

من ترك الصلاة متعمدا فقدكفر جهارا

Whoever deliberately abandon his solah, then he clearly turns a disbeliever.

من ترك الصلاة فقد برءت منه ذمة الله وذمة رسوله

Whoever abandons his solah, indeed he has wandered beyond the protection of
Allah and His messenger.

من حافظ على الصلاة كانت له نورا و برهانا ونجاة يوم القيامة

Whoever safeguards his solah, so for him nur (light) and burhan (guidance) and
escape from the trials of the Qiamah.

ومن لم يحافظ عليهالم تكن له نورا ولا برهانا ولا نجاة وكان يوم القيامة مع فرعون وقارون وهامان و أُبَيِّ بن خلف

Whoever does not safeguard his solah, there shall be neither nur nor burhan nor
escape. And at the day of Qiamah, he is grouped together with Fir’aun, Qarun,
Haman, and Ubai son of Khalaf.

Ustaz Zakaria said:

• It is haram for the authority to do personal acts of worship until he fulfil his responsibility with amar ma’ruf nahi munkar.
• Never do talfiq on mazhab. In extreme cases where you have to perform solah according to Hanafi, then you must take wudu’ according to their method.
• If you have skipped many obligatory solah before, you must make them up day and night. You are not allowed to do sunnah/nawafil until finish making up the missed ones.
• All Muslims must learn. One of neighboring masjids did ‘Eid Takbir after completing solah ‘Eidul-Fitr – this incorrectly done probably due to ignorance.
• Takbir for ‘Eidul-Fitr can be said anytime night of 1st Syawal until the imam commence sunnah solah ‘Eidul-Fitr. Takbir for ‘Eidul-Adha can be said Subuh (dawn) of 9 Zulhijjah until Asr (afternoon) 13th Zulhijjah.

Wallahu a'lam

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