What is the ruling on holding the Friday prayer in a rented building in a land of disbelief?

The questioner : For those who reside in lands of disbelief, or in Islamic lands, or sometimes in lands where there are Muslims, they sometimes establish an Islamic center in a large villa or the like, and they perform the congregational prayer and the Friday prayer in a rented villa or the like. Is it permissible to hold the Friday prayer in a rented villa?

The Shaykh : Of course, it is permissible. The conditions mentioned in many books of Islamic jurisprudence, both old and new, are at best based on the independent legal reasoning of some of the imams, and independent legal reasoning is subject to being right or wrong. Because of such rulings that were issued by their authors based on independent legal reasoning rather than relying on an explicit text, the scholars of Islamic jurisprudence said that rulings change with the change of time and place. As for the rulings that are explicitly stated in the Book or in the Sunnah, it is not permissible for them to change or be altered, no matter how much times and places change. We do not find in the Book of Allah, nor in the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), which is the explanation of the Noble Qur'an as is well known, any condition for the validity of the Friday prayer other than the congregation. All of us read and hear the saying of Allah the Exalted: the verse. So this house or this villa, as I said, was rented or bought, because I actually saw in Britain many houses rented for the Friday prayer and the congregational prayer. In fact, I saw in some of them a large church that the Muslims bought and converted into a mosque. As long as this house or this villa has the call to prayer made for the Friday prayer and the congregational prayer, then every Muslim should respond to the call of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) and attend the Friday prayer. Here I see the importance of jurisprudence based on the Book and the Sunnah, and its advantage over the rigid, traditional school-based jurisprudence. I saw in Britain different Islamic communities: Pakistanis, Indians, Arabs, and Turks. All of them went to those lands, unfortunately, to earn a living. But despite that, they are keen to hold fast to their religion. So they bought houses and converted them into prayer halls and mosques. Excuse me, in the Hanafi mosque, excuse me, or in the mosque where the Hanafis pray, the prayer is not valid there unless with the permission of the Muslim ruler. And who is the Muslim ruler in Britain? There is no Muslim ruler. But these Muslims felt the necessity of gathering for prayer in a land of disbelief ruled by disbelievers. Here, glory be to Allah, is a sign of the signs of Allah: that Muslims feel that this school-based jurisprudence does not support them or help them to hold fast to their religion, because it was issued for specific temporal and spatial circumstances. So we used to see these Hanafis praying the Friday prayer in these houses they rented from the disbelievers. We praise Allah that there is nothing in the Book or the Sunnah that prevents holding the Friday prayer, let alone the congregational prayer, in any of these rented houses or those rented from their owners who are disbelievers.