The Friday and Congregational Prayers

Question: I work on a farm, and when the time for the Friday prayer arrives and I prepare to perform it, the owner of the farm prevents me from going. I comply with his wishes and miss the prayer, after which I am filled with regret and sorrow. Yet I feel I have no option but to obey him. Does he have the right to do that? Am I sinful for continually abandoning the Friday prayer? And is he not sinful for preventing me from offering it?

Answer: A Muslim is obliged to safeguard the five daily prayers and the Friday prayer and to perform them in congregation in the mosques. Neither the pursuit of worldly gain nor of livelihood may distract him from that duty. Allah the Exalted says, “O you who believe, when the call is made for prayer on the Day of Friday, hasten to the remembrance of Allah and leave off trade” (Surah al-Jumuʿah 62:9).

He also says, “In houses which Allah has permitted to be raised and in which His Name is mentioned—men exalt Him therein morning and evening, whom neither commerce nor sale distracts from the remembrance of Allah, from establishing the prayer, and from paying the zakah. They fear a Day on which hearts and eyes will be overturned” (Surah an-Nūr 24:36–37).

Thus a Muslim must perform the prayers with the congregation in the mosques, and attending the Friday prayer is even more emphatically required. It is impermissible for anyone to prevent his employees from performing the prayer; doing so is unlawful. Nor is it permissible for the employees to obey him in that matter, for “there is no obedience to a created being when it entails disobedience to the Creator.” Attending the prayer in the mosque is, according to the Sacred Law, excluded from the period for which the employer may claim a worker’s time; the Muslim has the right to go and pray, whether or not his employer approves, for this is a right owed to Allah, Exalted is He. Therefore, it is incumbent upon you to