and someone who catches one rak‘ah of Fajr before sunrise have both caught the prayer, even if the remainder is performed outside its prescribed time. And Allah knows best.

He—may Allah have mercy on him—was asked about the Friday prayer in the citadel’s congregational mosque:

“Is it permissible, given that another Friday sermon is delivered in the city, while the citadel has its own walls and its gates are closed?”

He answered:

Yes, the Friday prayer may be held there, because it constitutes a separate city, as in the case of Misr and Cairo. Even if it did not constitute a separate city, most scholars permit holding the Friday prayer in two places in a large city when there is a need. Thus, when Baghdad was built with its two sides, a Friday prayer was established on the eastern side and another on the western side. Most scholars permitted this. They drew an analogy with the fact that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, [did not pray] (1) in his city except in one place: he would take the Muslims out and offer the Eid prayer in the open country. This remained the practice during the caliphates of Abū Bakr, ‘Umar, and ‘Uthmān.

When ‘Alī ibn Abī Tālib became caliph and settled in Kufa, which had a large population, they said:

“O Commander of the Faithful, there are elderly and weak people in the city for whom going out to the open country is difficult.”

So he appointed