Is it permissible to pray in a rented building?
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The questioner : Peace be upon you
The Shaykh : And upon you be peace and the mercy of Allah.
The questioner : We are the ones who called yesterday, and if Allah wills, we will ask the same questions and you will repeat the answers so that we can record them on the tape.
The Shaykh : Please, go ahead.
The questioner : The first question here is that in this city in Europe, there is no mosque that is owned; all its mosques are purchased or rented. The mosques are rented. Is it permissible to perform the Friday prayer in them? And does a person have the right to leave the Friday prayer on the pretext of work or study, for example?
The Shaykh : Please distinguish between one question and another. Ask question number one, take the answer, then ask the second, then the third, and so on. This makes the research clearer in the mind of the listener, like me, and others as well. So, the answer to the first question: any place where Muslims gather and the call for the Friday prayer is made, it is obligatory for every Muslim who hears this call to attend, in response to the saying of Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He:[Al-Jumu'ah 62:9] to the end of the verse. It does not matter after that whether the place is open land, a desert, or a wilderness, or whether it is a building. Then it does not matter whether the building in which they pray is an endowment, or the property of one of the people, or rented for a fee, as is the case with Muslims in many European countries, as is the case with you in Germany, and as we saw when it was permitted for us to go to Britain. The prayer is valid in these prayer halls as long as they are not usurped. However, if they are usurped, there are two opinions among the scholars. The majority of them validate the prayer, whether it is Friday or congregational prayer, validating it with dislike. Some of them, which is the Hanbali school and the Zahiri school, invalidate it. There is no evidence for invalidation; rather, usurpation is forbidden, whether one resides in it or prays in it. As for the second question, what was it?
The Shaykh : And upon you be peace and the mercy of Allah.
The questioner : We are the ones who called yesterday, and if Allah wills, we will ask the same questions and you will repeat the answers so that we can record them on the tape.
The Shaykh : Please, go ahead.
The questioner : The first question here is that in this city in Europe, there is no mosque that is owned; all its mosques are purchased or rented. The mosques are rented. Is it permissible to perform the Friday prayer in them? And does a person have the right to leave the Friday prayer on the pretext of work or study, for example?
The Shaykh : Please distinguish between one question and another. Ask question number one, take the answer, then ask the second, then the third, and so on. This makes the research clearer in the mind of the listener, like me, and others as well. So, the answer to the first question: any place where Muslims gather and the call for the Friday prayer is made, it is obligatory for every Muslim who hears this call to attend, in response to the saying of Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He:
O you who have believed, when [the adhan] is called for the prayer on the day of Jumu'ah [Friday], then proceed to the remembrance of Allah and leave trade
يا أيّها الّذين آمنوا إذا نودي للصّلاة من يوم الجمعة فاسعوا إلى ذكر الله وذروا البيع
Source
www.al-albany.com
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.