The Ruling on Repeating the Congregation in the Mosque

The questioner : He says: I had finished the 'Isha' prayer, then some of the brothers came to pray 'Isha', so I wanted to pray with them as a voluntary prayer. Should I complete four rak'ahs with the intention of voluntary prayer, or should I pray two, based on the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him)

The Shaykh : No, this is for a specific circumstance, so he prays four with them. However, the issue should be looked at from another angle: was his prayer in the mosque or outside the mosque? Because the ruling differs. If it is in the mosque, it is not permissible to repeat the congregation. Accordingly, it is not permissible for him to repeat the prayer behind those who are establishing a second congregation in a mosque that has a regular imam and a regular mu'adhdhin. But if that happens outside the mosque, in a house, in the open, at a workplace, for trade, or the like, then the answer is as we said: he prays four with them.

Another questioner : Shaykh, can this happen in America? Certainly, this happens in the mosques there. People do not control their time as we do here. How is that? Perhaps those who come to pray the second congregation are unable to come with the first congregation at all. Why? Because of their situation there, which differs from their situation regarding work; they are all working there.

The Shaykh : But this does not justify them, nor does it make it permissible for them to repeat the congregation in the mosque.

Another questioner : But here, for example, in our country and in other Islamic countries, perhaps they are lenient and lazy, saying we find a second, third, or fourth congregation, especially in market mosques. So, I do not think the situation applies to them, because there their work ends at a certain time or in a certain hour, or the distances are far and there are very few mosques in the area where Zakariyya is, for example. Do they have a dispensation, for example, for the second congregation?

The Shaykh : Shaykh 'Ali, if we say to them that it is a dispensation, that means, first, that we approve of their residence in those disbeliever lands. That is one thing. The other is that we approve of their maintaining the few mosques and being content with the few, whereas the obligatory thing is that there should be a mosque in every neighborhood where there is a Muslim community, gathering them for at least the five prayers, and that there should be a mosque in another neighborhood where the people of all the neighborhoods gather in the grand mosque. So, if we say—and this is what you said, and we know it completely—that this makes it permissible for them to repeat the congregation in the same mosque, that means we have approved of them in both matters: their residence in those lands where they are not heard, because they are lands of disbelief, and that they establish the rituals of Islam as if they were in the lands of Islam. This, first, means that we approve of their settling there, and this is not permissible. Second, it means we approve of their reducing the building of mosques, and this is not permissible.