We have a prayer place in our company; is our prayer valid there, given that we can hear the mu'adhdhin?

Question : Honorable Shaykh, we are in a large company, and there is a prayer place inside the building. We can hear the voices of the mu'adhdhins while we are at the company. Is our prayer inside the building valid?

Answer : Yes, the prayer is valid without a doubt, because the stronger position among the opinions of the scholars is that congregational prayer is not a condition for the validity of the prayer. This is based on the hadith of Ibn 'Umar and Abu Hurayrah, which indicate the preference of congregational prayer over the obligatory prayer. This preference indicates that the prayer performed individually is valid; if it were not valid, there would be no obligatory prayer at all. When is congregational prayer twenty-seven degrees better than the obligatory prayer?
This indicates that the obligatory prayer is valid, but congregational prayer is better. Congregational prayer is obligatory in the mosque, but if they are in a place in a company or an office and the mosques are far from them, there is no harm in their praying in their place of work. Likewise, if they leave this place and disperse, and do not pray in the nearby mosque, and their prayer is in a place that gathers them, there is no harm in their praying in this place for the sake of their gathering. Also, the loudspeaker today is not considered, because the loudspeaker is heard from a far distance, but the criterion is the voice if this loudspeaker did not exist. So if the mosque is close to you such that you can hear it without the loudspeaker, then it is obligatory for you to pray in the mosque, except in the cases you mentioned. Honorable Shaykh, write, write, please.