The Preference of the Mosque with the Larger Congregation
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
The questioner says: Honorable Shaykh, in his question he asks: Is there a preference for praying in the congregation in the mosque if there is one mosque with fifty people and another with two hundred, and both mosques are close to my house? In which one should I pray?
Answer:
Pray in the one with the larger congregation, unless going to the farther mosque affects you, or causes you to be missed by the people of the mosque, or leads them to think ill of you, or think ill of the imam, saying, "He did not pray in this mosque except because he saw something wrong with the imam." The matter is broad in this regard, but one should avoid the potential harm. So if there is no potential harm, the mosque with the larger congregation is better. Yes.
The questioner says: Honorable Shaykh, in his question he asks: Is there a preference for praying in the congregation in the mosque if there is one mosque with fifty people and another with two hundred, and both mosques are close to my house? In which one should I pray?
Answer:
Pray in the one with the larger congregation, unless going to the farther mosque affects you, or causes you to be missed by the people of the mosque, or leads them to think ill of you, or think ill of the imam, saying, "He did not pray in this mosque except because he saw something wrong with the imam." The matter is broad in this regard, but one should avoid the potential harm. So if there is no potential harm, the mosque with the larger congregation is better. Yes.
Source
نور على الدرب - الفوزان - 02/222 — archive.org (16:44)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.