The Ruling on the Friday Prayer for Prisoners

The questioner:
Likewise, the people of the prison, O Shaykh. Do the prisoners, the inmates of the prisons, have to pray the Friday prayer, or do they not?

The Shaykh:
If the prison inmates have mosques where the congregational prayer is established and the call to prayer is made, they pray the Friday prayer following the people of the town. Yes.

The questioner:
But if there are prisoners in the cells who pray the obligatory prayers in their place, are they not among the people who must pray the Friday prayer?

The Shaykh:
They were scattered in the cells.

The questioner:
Each cell has twenty or thirty.

The Shaykh:
So they do not establish the Friday prayer, even if they have a place where they gather. Yes. For the Friday prayer, perhaps, perhaps it is valid from them, and the matter requires consideration, it requires consideration, because prisons have existed since ancient times, and it is not mentioned that the prisoners were ordered to pray the Friday prayer. The Friday prayer, yes.

The presenter:
May Allah reward you.

The Shaykh:
And if they prayed it and did it, especially if a mosque was prepared for them to gather and pray in it all together, we do not see, or it does not appear to me, any obstacle to establishing it, yes, but it is necessary to take the fatwa, it is necessary to take the fatwa on this from the scholars who are qualified to issue fatwas, yes.

The questioner:
As for if they are in their cells, each cell having a total of twenty or thirty.

The Shaykh:
As for those scattered in their cells or in their prisons, these people pray the midday prayer, yes.

The presenter:
May Allah reward you,