The ruling on limiting oneself to a single sermon in the Friday prayer
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Honorable Shaykh. The questioner says: You mentioned (may Allah preserve you) that sitting between the two sermons is a recommended practice (sunnah), and that the Friday prayer is valid without this sitting. But what if the imam limits himself to only one sermon, whether he is doing so intentionally or out of forgetfulness?
Answer:
His prayer is not valid. If he limits himself to one sermon, the prayer is not valid. Two sermons are required; this is a condition. It is a condition for the validity of the Friday prayer that two sermons precede it. This is necessary. They said that the two sermons are a substitute for two units of prayer (rak'ahs). If they are a substitute for two units of prayer, then leaving off a sermon means leaving off a unit of prayer, so it is not permissible to limit oneself to one sermon. Whoever does this is to be removed from the position of imam. It is not permissible to remain silent about it. Rather, it is obligatory to report him to the mosque department, to the authority responsible for appointing imams, in order to have him removed from the position of imam, so that he does not ruin the people's prayer. Yes.
The presenter:
May Allah reward you
Honorable Shaykh. The questioner says: You mentioned (may Allah preserve you) that sitting between the two sermons is a recommended practice (sunnah), and that the Friday prayer is valid without this sitting. But what if the imam limits himself to only one sermon, whether he is doing so intentionally or out of forgetfulness?
Answer:
His prayer is not valid. If he limits himself to one sermon, the prayer is not valid. Two sermons are required; this is a condition. It is a condition for the validity of the Friday prayer that two sermons precede it. This is necessary. They said that the two sermons are a substitute for two units of prayer (rak'ahs). If they are a substitute for two units of prayer, then leaving off a sermon means leaving off a unit of prayer, so it is not permissible to limit oneself to one sermon. Whoever does this is to be removed from the position of imam. It is not permissible to remain silent about it. Rather, it is obligatory to report him to the mosque department, to the authority responsible for appointing imams, in order to have him removed from the position of imam, so that he does not ruin the people's prayer. Yes.
The presenter:
May Allah reward you
Source
75-اللقاء الأسبوعي مع الشيخ صالح الفوزان - 25 — archive.org (42:00)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.