(1) I maintain that this view is plainly questionable. Anyone who notices the Prophet’s phrase “fi jamaʿah” (in congregation) in the hadith of Tariq ibn Shihab, cited under the first issue, will see the problem. The author himself—may Allah have mercy on him—recognized this in his other work, al-Rawdah; on p. 134, after quoting a passage similar to the one above, he comments: “Were it not for the hadith of Tariq ibn Shihab just mentioned, which limits the obligation on every Muslim to performing it in congregation, and for the fact that during his time ﷺ it was never established except in congregation, then performing it individually would have sufficed, as with the other prayers.” This is a clear statement from him that the Friday prayer is not valid when performed individually, based on the hadith of Tariq and the accompanying evidence, and this is the correct position to which we firmly adhere. The likely reason the author did not notice this point here is that the phrase “fi jamaʿah” slipped from his pen when he cited the hadith—something we already pointed out—so nothing in the book reminded him of it, nor did his memory bring it to mind. Allah knows best.