What is the standard that can be used to determine whether the Friday sermon is long or short?

The questioner : What is the standard regarding the length of the Friday sermon, given that some imams lengthen the sermons on the pretext that there are no circles of knowledge and circles of dhikr in this regard? I do not know what standard can be used to determine whether the Friday sermon is long or short.

The Shaykh : I missed something of what you said. You mentioned what some people say?

The questioner : I mean, they lengthen the Friday sermon to an hour or an hour and forty-five minutes on the pretext that times have changed and that people rarely engage in circles of dhikr and knowledge, and that...

The Shaykh : I have understood. Before answering, immediately upon receiving this question, it is necessary to present an important scholarly introduction: If Muslims fall into a violation of the Shari'ah, it is not permissible to treat this violation with another violation. Rather, the scholars must treat the disease with the cure, not treat the disease with the disease. The Muslims' turning away, as you reported from some of them, from seeking knowledge and attending the gatherings of knowledge is, without a doubt, a disease that has afflicted the Islamic world for decades, if not centuries. Therefore, it is not permissible for us to treat this disease and illness with another disease, because this other disease is also a violation of the Sunnah. It is agreed upon by all scholars that the Friday sermon must be short and not long. Those who contradict this Sunnah excuse themselves with what I just mentioned regarding the Muslims' turning away from attending the gatherings of knowledge as a general answer. We say: This does not justify any preacher to contradict the guidance of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) in his sermons, as came in the authentic hadith in Muslim: . Now, we begin to answer your question directly after this introduction. You ask: What are the limits? There is no doubt that there is no material limit that a Muslim can say, for example, five minutes to ten minutes, timed by the hours in the time known today, more than that. Rather, the criterion is that his sermon not be longer than his prayer. And now you find this phenomenon to be a complete contradiction of the guidance of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him and his family). So the one who preaches to the people for an hour or more than that, or less than that, his prayer is five minutes, maybe reaching that or not. So there he makes excuses and justifies himself with the excuse of the people's ignorance and their lack of desire for knowledge. Why does he excuse himself for shortening the prayer in which lengthening is prescribed? And this lengthening is possible... So regarding the system of the sermon in terms of shortening it, and regarding the prayer in terms of shortening it, while they lengthen it, if they have an excuse for lengthening the sermon for the call mentioned above, they have absolutely no excuse for their lightening of the prayer. But the truth is that desires control many Muslims; I do not exclude their elites from this. Rather, their elites and the common people, except those whom Allah protects, and they are few. So the sermon has a share for the soul, except for whom Allah wills. So here this share intervenes and justifies for the owner of this soul to lengthen the sermon on the pretext that the people do not hear the lessons, and we want to bear the opportunity and confine them in this gathering and impose on them by force what we want to deliver to them of knowledge. We say, as I said above, it is not permissible to treat the disease with the disease.