Issue: If those who are not inhabitants of a town—meaning, a group out in the open country who are near the city—abandon the Eid prayer, they are not to be fought, because it is obligatory only upon the inhabitants of villages and cities, just as the Friday prayer is. As for nomadic Bedouins and the like, the Eid prayer is not held among them, just as the Friday prayer is not held among them.

His statement, “the imam is to fight them”: what the jurists mean by the imam is the highest authority in the country. In former times, the Muslims had a single imam, but circumstances have changed.

Issue: May anyone other than the imam fight them?

The answer is: It is not permissible for him to fight them, because this constitutes usurpation of the ruler’s authority. If the door were opened to people, so that everyone who saw something wrong could denounce it through action and change it by his hand, great disorder would result. Many people do not grasp the seriousness of such a matter: one may believe something to be unlawful and seek to change it when it is in fact lawful, and may assault the one who did it on the grounds that it is unlawful and that whoever sees an evil must change it by his hand. This would lead to much harm.

For this reason, the scholars said: Legal punishments may only be carried out by the imam or his deputy. Likewise, discretionary punishments may only be assessed by the imam or his deputy. Fighting in this matter and similar matters may only be undertaken by the imam or his deputy; not everyone has the right to do whatever he wishes.

And its time is like the time of the Duha prayer, …

His statement, “And its time is like the time of the Duha prayer,” means that the time for the Eid prayer is the same as the time for the Duha prayer. It is known that the time for the Duha prayer begins when the sun has risen to the height of a spear above the horizon after sunrise—approximately fifteen minutes.