It has also been reported: “lā ṣalāta li-jār il-masjid illā fī l-masjid” (the neighbor of the mosque has no [valid] prayer except in the mosque). A similar statement is related from ʿAlī—may Allah be pleased with him—who added: “wa-jār ul-masjid man asmʿahu al-munādī” (the neighbor of the mosque is whoever can hear the call to prayer). Al-Bayhaqī transmitted the report with an authentic chain.

Ibn al-Qayyim—may Allah have mercy on him—said: “Whoever studies the Sunnah carefully will see that performing it in the mosques is an individual obligation, except when a legitimate excuse allows one to forego the congregation. Abandoning the mosque without excuse is therefore tantamount to abandoning the congregational prayer itself without excuse, and with this the hadiths and all earlier reports agree …” End quote.

Allah has threatened those who render the mosques idle or prevent the prayer from being established in them. He says: “Who does greater wrong than one who bars the mosques of Allah so that His name not be mentioned in them and strives for their ruin? Such people should not enter them except in fear; for them is disgrace in this world, and in the Hereafter a tremendous punishment” (Quran 2:114).

Holding the congregational prayer outside the mosque disables the mosques or at least diminishes the number of worshippers in them, which in turn weakens the importance of the prayer in people’s hearts. Allah the Exalted says: “In houses which Allah has allowed to be raised and wherein His name is remembered” (Quran 24:36). This includes elevating them physically and spiritually, and both aspects are required.