There are sheep herders among us who have had a dispute with the owners of the sheep because the workers want to pray Jumu'ah, and the owners are preventing them.
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The questioner : He says: May the Shaykh be respected, we live in a village, and there are sheep herders among us whose grazing area is between five and ten kilometers away. Problems have arisen between them and the sheep owners because the workers want to pray Jumu'ah, and the owners prevent them from doing so out of fear for their sheep being stolen or lost. They say that Jumu'ah prayer is not obligatory for you in this situation. Please advise me, may Allah guide you, what is the ruling in this matter? Do we convince the workers that Jumu'ah prayer is not obligatory for them, or do we call upon the sheep owners to allow them to perform Jumu'ah prayer?
The Shaykh : If the fear is real and they are afraid that if these herders leave the sheep, they will be lost or stolen, then there is no harm in their staying with their sheep and praying Zuhr instead of Jumu'ah. However, it is better than that to advise the sheep owners to have these herders take turns. For example, if there are two of them, it is said: one prays Jumu'ah this week, and the other prays Jumu'ah the next week. This is because some workers like to pray Jumu'ah to perform the prayer and attend the congregation of the Muslims, and they have relatives among the other workers who attend Jumu'ah, so they like to talk to them. To combine the two benefits, we say: the best and most preferable is to have them take turns, where one attends Jumu'ah and the other attends the next Jumu'ah, so that the good is achieved. And Allah the Exalted loves it when His servants make things easy for one another.
The Shaykh : If the fear is real and they are afraid that if these herders leave the sheep, they will be lost or stolen, then there is no harm in their staying with their sheep and praying Zuhr instead of Jumu'ah. However, it is better than that to advise the sheep owners to have these herders take turns. For example, if there are two of them, it is said: one prays Jumu'ah this week, and the other prays Jumu'ah the next week. This is because some workers like to pray Jumu'ah to perform the prayer and attend the congregation of the Muslims, and they have relatives among the other workers who attend Jumu'ah, so they like to talk to them. To combine the two benefits, we say: the best and most preferable is to have them take turns, where one attends Jumu'ah and the other attends the next Jumu'ah, so that the good is achieved. And Allah the Exalted loves it when His servants make things easy for one another.