“It is forbidden to establish it in more than one place in the town, except where there is a need …”

His statement, “It is forbidden to establish it in more than one place in the town, except where there is a need,” means that it is forbidden to establish the Friday prayer in more than one location in a town unless there is a need. The evidence for this will follow.

This too is one of the distinctive rulings of the Friday prayer. As for prayers other than Friday prayer, they may be performed in the residential quarters. In the hadith of Aishah, may Allah be pleased with her, the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, “commanded that mosques be built in the residential quarters, and that they be cleaned and perfumed” (1)—that is, in the neighbourhoods. Thus one says, “the quarter of such-and-such a clan” and “the quarter of such-and-such a clan,” meaning their neighbourhood. Friday prayer, however, must be held in a single mosque, for if it were divided among the mosques of the various neighbourhoods, the purpose for which Friday prayer was prescribed would be lost. The people would disperse, and each group would leave with an exhortation different from that of another group; the town would become divided, and they would not drink from a single river.

Moreover, if Friday prayers were held in multiple places, the greatest objective—namely, the gathering and unity of the Muslims—would be missed. For if every group were left to establish Friday prayer in its own neighbourhood, they would neither come to know one another nor develop mutual fellowship. Each side of the town would remain unaware of the other. This is why Friday prayer was not held in more than one place—not in the time of Abu Bakr, nor Umar, nor Uthman, nor Ali, nor throughout the era of all the Companions, nor in the time of the Successors. Rather, it was only established in the third century, approximately after the year 276 AH. Thus, until that time, the Muslims