the farthest distance the muezzin’s voice reaches. In the report transmitted by Ashhab from him, he said: “Because that is the distance from the farthest part of al-ʿAwālī to Medina, and it is not known that those who lived farther away than al-ʿAwālī came to the Friday prayer or were obliged to attend.”

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This distance applies to those outside the town. Those within it are individually obliged to attend the Friday prayer, even if they live three miles or more from the congregational mosque. This was transmitted from Mālik by Ibn Abī Uways, and also by Ibn Wahb. In my view, it clarifies the position of the school.

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The Friday prayer has conditions without which it is not obligatory, though it remains valid in their absence; conditions without which it is neither obligatory nor valid; obligatory elements without which it is invalid; and sunnah practices and meritorious acts without which it is incomplete.

The conditions without which it is not obligatory, though it remains valid in their absence, are three: being male, being free, and being resident. For slaves, travellers, and women are not obliged to perform the Friday prayer, but they may do so.

The conditions without which the Friday prayer is neither obligatory nor valid are also three: an imam, a congregation, and a place of permanent settlement, whether a village or a town, according to the school of Mālik—may Allah Most High have mercy on him. It has been said that the imam and the congregation are conditions of validity, like ablution, intention, facing the qiblah, and similar requirements. It has also been said that they are conditions of obligation. It is not correct, however, to say that they are conditions of obligation but not validity, or conditions of validity but not obligation. Rather, the correct position is that they are conditions of both obligation and validity. For they may be absent with no possibility of securing them: they are conditions of obligation when absent, and conditions of validity when present.

To explain: whenever a people lack a congregation sufficient for a valid Friday prayer, or have no imam capable of properly leading them in it, the obligation of the Friday prayer is waived for them. Whenever they have a congregation sufficient for a valid Friday prayer and an imam capable of properly leading them in it, they are obliged to perform the Friday prayer with that congregation and imam. If they fail to fulfil either or both of these requirements, their Friday prayer does not suffice