Establishing Friday prayer in more than one place without necessity
13-6-2007 | IslamWeb
Question:
as salaam alaykum, i live in calcutta, India. In our city there are 3 big mosques which follows the Salafi daa'wa, so for Jumu'aa prayers we gather in this 3 mosques only, apart from this 3 mosques there are several place where 5 times prayers are held daily but this places are not mosques. Recently in one of the 3 mosque above mentioned, renovation works have started due to which the Imaam of the mosque requested the people to come in a lesser number due to space shortage. Accordingly many people formed a committee and started praying their Jum'aa in a place which is not a mosque, however there are ample space to accommodate people in the other 2 mosques and even in the mosque which is under renovation. My question is that is it right in the light of sharia. Is there any hadith which proves that Jum'aa should only be held in big masjids and not the small one ? Please reply it is very urgent because it is creating a fitnaa amongst us !
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 
is His slave and Messenger.
The Friday prayer is valid whether it is performed in a mosque or somewhere else, this is the opinion of the Shaafi’i and Hanbali scholars 
. However, according to the most correct opinion establishing it in more than one place is not allowed except if the place can not accommodate all people or that it is far enough that it becomes difficult for people to reach it. In such a case, establishing it in many places, be it a big mosque or a small one or any place other than a mosque, all such cases are allowed, but only according to necessity.
Know that some of the objectives for establishing the Friday prayer is for the Muslims to get together, know each other, develop cooperation between them and to achieve many other benefits. See Fatwa 90374.
Therefore, we advise those who started praying the Friday prayer in a new place to come back to perform prayers with their Muslim brothers and they should not disunite the Muslims without any Islamicly valid reason.
Allaah Knows best.