Is it valid to pray Jumu'ah and congregational prayer behind an innovator?

Q: What is the ruling for a resident in a country whose people are clinging to religious innovation? Is it valid for him to pray Jumu'ah and congregational prayer with them? Or should he pray alone? Or is Jumu'ah dropped from him? And if the people of the Sunnah in a country are fewer than twelve, is Jumu'ah valid for them or not?

A: Establishing Jumu'ah is obligatory with every Muslim, whether righteous or sinful. So if the imam in Jumu'ah is not taken out of Islam by his innovation, then one prays behind him. Imam Abu Ja'far al-Tahawi (may Allah have mercy on him) said in his famous creed: End.
The commentator of this creed, who is one of the precise scholars in explaining this phrase, said: The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: It was narrated by Makhul from Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) , and al-Daraqutni reported it and said: Makhul did not meet Abu Hurayrah, and in its chain is Mu'awiyah ibn Salih, about whom scholars have spoken, and Muslim used it as evidence in his Sahih. Al-Daraqutni also reported it, and Abu Dawud reported it from Makhul from Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) , saying: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: In Sahih al-Bukhari, it is stated that Abdullah ibn Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both) used to pray behind al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf al-Thaqafi, and likewise Anas ibn Malik, and al-Hajjaj was an open sinner and oppressor. In his Sahih, it is also stated that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: And from Abdullah ibn Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both), the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Al-Daraqutni reported it from various routes and graded them weak.
Know, may Allah have mercy on you and on us, that it is permissible for a man to pray behind one from whom he does not know of any innovation or open sinfulness, by the consensus of the imams. It is not a condition of following an imam that the follower knows the belief of his imam, nor that he tests him by asking, "What do you believe?" Rather, he prays behind one whose state is concealed. Even if he prays behind an innovator who calls to his innovation, or an open sinner whose sin is apparent, who is the regular imam that he cannot pray except behind, such as the imam of Jumu'ah and the two festivals, or the imam in the prayer at 'Arafah during Hajj, and the like, the follower prays behind him according to the majority of the Salaf and the Khalaf.
And whoever leaves Jumu'ah and congregational prayer behind the sinful imam is an innovator according to most scholars. The correct view is that he prays it and does not repeat it. The Companions (may Allah be pleased with them) used to pray Jumu'ah and congregational prayer behind sinners and did not repeat it, just as Abdullah ibn Umar used to pray behind al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf, and likewise Anas ibn Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) as mentioned earlier, and likewise Abdullah ibn Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) and others used to pray behind al-Walid ibn Uqbah ibn Abi Mu'ayt, who used to drink intoxicants, until he once prayed Fajr with them four rak'ahs and then said, "Shall I add more for you?" So Ibn Mas'ud said to him, "We have been with you since this morning in addition."
In the authentic collections, it is stated that when Uthman (may Allah be pleased with him) was besieged, a person prayed with the people. So a questioner asked Uthman: "You are the general imam, and this one who prayed with the people is an imam of fitnah?" He said: "O my son, prayer is among the best things people do. So if they do it well, do well with them, and if they do it badly, avoid their badness."
The prayer of the open sinner and the innovator is valid in itself. So if the follower prays behind him, his prayer is not invalidated. But the reason those who disliked it disliked praying behind him is that enjoining good and forbidding evil is obligatory. Part of that is that one who displays innovation and sinfulness is not appointed as an imam for the Muslims, for he deserves discretionary punishment until he repents. If it is possible to boycott him until he repents, that is good. And if some people, by leaving the prayer behind him and praying behind someone else, have an effect in forbidding the evil until he repents or is removed, or people stop from such a sin, then for such a person, leaving the prayer behind him has a legal benefit, and the follower does not miss Jumu'ah or congregation. But if leaving the prayer behind him causes the follower to miss Jumu'ah and congregation, then here he does not leave the prayer behind him except an innovator who contradicts the Companions (may Allah be pleased with them) .
Likewise, if the imam has been appointed by the authorities, and there is no legal benefit in leaving the prayer behind him, then here he does not leave the prayer behind him; rather, praying behind him is better. If it is possible for a person not to appoint one who displays evil as an imam, it is obligatory for him to do so. But if someone else appointed him, and he cannot remove him from the imamate, or he cannot remove him from the imamate except by causing a greater harm than the harm of the evil he displayed, then it is not permissible to repel a little corruption with much corruption, nor to repel the lesser of two harms by bringing about the greater of them. For the Shari'ah came to obtain benefits and perfect them, and to disable harms and reduce them according to possibility. So missing the congregations is a greater corruption than following the sinful imam in them, especially if leaving them does not repel sinfulness. So the legal benefit is disabled without repelling that harm.
And as for if it is possible to perform Jumu'ah and congregation behind the righteous, that is more preferable than performing it behind the sinner. And at that time, if one prays behind the sinner without an excuse, it is a place of ijtihad among scholars. Some said he repeats it, and some said he does not repeat it.
The place for elaborating this is in the books of branches. End of the commentator's words. The closest view in this last issue is not repeating the prayer, due to the previous evidence, and because the original ruling is that repeating is not obligatory. So it is not permissible to obligate it except with specific evidence that requires it, and we do not know of its existence. And Allah is the one who grants success.
And as for the second question: The answer is to say: This issue has a famous disagreement among the scholars of knowledge. The correct view is the permissibility of establishing Jumu'ah with three or more, if they are settled in a village where Jumu'ah is not established. As for the condition of forty, or twelve, or fewer, or more, for establishing Jumu'ah, there is no reliable evidence for it, as far as we know. Rather, it is obligatory that it be established in a congregation, and the minimum is three. This is the saying of a group of scholars, and it was chosen by Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him), and it is the correct view as mentioned earlier.