Traveling to another locality for the Friday prayer

15-1-2014 | IslamWeb

Question:

There is only one mosque in our village in which the Friday prayer is held. However, the prayer is delayed and not performed until shortly before the ‘Asr (i.e. afternoon) prayer under the pretext of making matters easy for those who are unable to catch the prayer on time. This is because of the western system of study and work which we adopt in our Islamic country. Is it permissible to travel a distance of 15 or 30 kilometers using a means of transportation in order to perform the prayer in a city or village where both options are available, the first and second Friday prayer, in order to catch the first one?

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Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His slave and Messenger.

If the people in your village perform the Friday prayer at its fixed time as prescribed by the Sharee‘ah, which is noon, you must wait to pray along with them. If they delay it until after its time, you are not obligated to go to any other place. Rather, you are obligated to perform the Thuhr (i.e. noon) prayer instead.

Allaah Knows best.