What is the number of people required for the Friday prayer to be valid?

The Shaykh : We must look at the evidence that compelled this jurist to stipulate this number. When the scholars of verification looked into it, they found two types of hadiths regarding the number of forty. The first type—and it is authentic—is that the first Friday prayer gathered had forty Companions. This is true, but it does not indicate that this matter, which happened to occur, is a condition for the validity of the prayer. It is not a condition, because every Friday prayer will be repeated, and it is necessary that the number be forty or more? No, because this is, as the Hanafi scholars say in another issue, a specific occurrence. It just happened that the number was forty. Suppose it had been forty-one, or thirty-nine, or something similar. This does not indicate that it is a condition. Rather, the second type of hadiths indicates that it is a condition, but they are not authentic by the consensus of the scholars of hadith, led by Imam Abu al-Hasan al-Daraqutni. He cited all the hadiths regarding the specification of a number of thirty, forty, or fifty. All the narrations are different, and they are all weak in their chains of narration, so they do not constitute a proof.
Therefore, no hadith that constitutes a proof has been established regarding the specific stipulation of the number forty. However, we are content with the general statement of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) regarding the stipulation of any number: . One person calls, the imam is one person, and a third man is one person; so they are three. This is a congregation. Some scholars say that two or more constitute a congregation, although a hadith was narrated from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), but its chain of narration is weak.
Please proceed.

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : Ah, excuse me, I did not understand... the questioner's question.

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh: Go ahead.