What is the ruling on selling during the time of the Friday prayer and the congregational prayer if one hears the call to prayer, for the one who sells and for the one who does not hear the call?

The questioner: All right, Shaykh, another question. It is known that selling during the time of the Friday prayer is forbidden. What is the ruling on selling during the time of the congregational prayer if one hears the call to prayer, for the one who sells and for the one who does not hear the call?

The Shaykh : How?

The questioner: For the one who hears the call and for the one who does not hear the call.

The Shaykh: For the congregational prayer?

The questioner : Yes.

The Shaykh: If you had stayed with the Friday prayer and asked, "What is the ruling for the one who hears and the one who does not hear?" that would have been more jurisprudential for you, because we would say that the sale of the one who hears is forbidden and invalid, and the sale of the one who does not hear is valid. In that case, you would know the ruling for the congregational prayer a fortiori.

The questioner: But he may have known that the time for the Friday prayer had entered, even if he did not hear the call, because the Friday prayer is obligatory.

The Shaykh: If that is the case, why did you frame the question as "heard or did not hear"? Why did you not say "knew or did not know"? This is evidence that...

The questioner: If he hears the call for the congregational prayer, he must respond to it.

The Shaykh : Absolutely?

The questioner: It has conditions; we do not say it is absolute. There is detail in the issue, meaning...

The Shaykh: All right, let us stick to the one who hears.

The questioner: The one who hears.

The Shaykh: Good, absolutely?

The questioner : Absolutely not.

The Shaykh: No, it is not like that. Now we hear the adhan of Makkah.

The questioner: No, for the one who hears.
Al-Halabi: This is the first session with you, so take it step by step.
Abu Malik: My brother Abu 'Abdullah, may Allah reward him with good. This fiqh is for knowledge. He is one of the most capable students in Islamic economics, and he has a good grasp of it, praise be to Allah. His fiqh in legal matters or in acts of worship is also, praise be to Him, well-versed. However, he learned fiqh from some of the brothers in Kuwait and from some of the brothers in Saudi Arabia. The brothers in Saudi Arabia have a particular perspective that actually differs in many fatwas regarding acts of worship. So he is speaking not to take a new ruling or to contradict the other ruling, but rather to get a perspective for comparison with the other.

The Shaykh: We are with him, and it is clear from the title of the written question.

The questioner: My Shaykh, the problem currently occurring in shops—many shops, I am speaking of commercial shops, the reality that exists now—many of the brothers who own shops hear the call to prayer at the time of the adhan, and the mosque is nearby. What is the ruling for the one who does not close his shop to go to prayer? Is selling in this case considered forbidden, and is its ruling like the ruling on selling during the time of the Friday prayer?

The Shaykh : No, they are not the same.

The questioner: Yes, this is the issue now.

The Shaykh: No problem, but the previous issue must be resolved: does every hearing of the call result in the invalidity of the sale and the prohibition of that sale?

The questioner: And that the price received is forbidden.

The Shaykh: Does every hearing of the adhan?
Abu Malik: Let us specify: a man locks the door of his shop right in front of the mosque.

The Shaykh: Good, but this does not help in terms of knowledge.
Abu Malik: No, no, in any case, yes, he is asking this specific question.

The Shaykh: Yes, yes, but we want to benefit him with something else. Yes, let us proceed with the professor; his shop is next to the mosque.
Abu Malik: He does not hear; he sees the prayer, he sees the people praying.

The Shaykh: What is the question with this specification?
Abu Malik: Is his sale and its price forbidden?
Al-Halabi: The congregational prayer, absolutely, other than Friday.

The Shaykh: His sale is not invalid, because Friday differs from the congregation in many rulings. First, I will complete the answer to the question. I say that the one specified by Professor Abu Malik, whose home or trade is next to the mosque, and who sells and buys while people enter the mosque, has two cases. Either his trade distracts him from prayer, in which case he is undoubtedly sinful with a great sin. As for his sale, it is valid and binding, but he is sinful. If his trade does not distract him from prayer in the mosque with the congregation, it is not correct to analogize this to the one who is distracted from the congregational prayer absolutely, who does not pray it absolutely. It is not permissible for us to associate him with the one who sells after the adhan of Friday. This returns to two matters. The first is that Friday differs from the Dhuhr prayer, for example, in that attending the sermon is not like attending the preceding sunnah of the Dhuhr prayer. So if a Muslim leaves his store to the mosque and prays the congregation, there is no doubt that he is not sinful. But the one who intentionally delays the congregational prayer and listening to the dhikr, which is the sermon, is sinful, even if he did not sell or buy or do anything. If the Qur'anic text to the end of the verse had been about the congregational prayer, it would have been possible to associate the Friday prayer with the congregation. But the reverse is not the case, because what is established of rulings for the higher does not correctly associate those rulings with the lower, and the reverse is true: what is established of the lower rulings, the higher is a fortiori. For this reason, I say that selling after the adhan of one of the five prayers is not forbidden. Why? Because there is no prohibition in it. But being distracted from the congregational prayer due to trade, that is the only forbidden thing. As for the invalidity of the sale, as is the case with the Friday prayer, no, because this is a specific ruling that indicates the importance and distinction of the Friday prayer over the congregational prayer. Therefore, you see the Ummah now, with its scholars, students, and common people, caring more about the Friday prayer than about the congregational prayer. One of the most prominent manifestations of this is that you do not find a mosque where the Friday prayer is held where a second Friday prayer is held, whereas congregations are repeated in most of the mosques of the world. This is a practical differentiator that indicates the importance of the Friday prayer and its distinction in the specific rulings pertaining to it over the congregational prayer. This is all I have in the answer.