or the Friday prayer, Satan will seize control of them. This indicates that it is impermissible to abandon the congregational prayer. From this ḥadīth one might infer that the prohibition applies when the number is three or more, yet other narrations make clear that the obligation of praying in congregation begins with two or more. As for Jumuʿah (the Friday prayer), it is not required unless they are at least three in a settled area. Desert dwellers and travelers on the open road are exempt, but villages and towns must hold Jumuʿah, and the bare minimum is three worshippers.

Someone may ask, “How could a village or city have only three permanent residents?” The answer is that the locality might consist mainly of travelers who have come, for example, to study—just as we see today in some overseas communities where only three are local citizens and all the others are visiting students. In such a case the Friday prayer becomes obligatory because the place contains three residents. Bedouins, however, are not obliged to perform Jumuʿah, for it is only held in villages and towns; accordingly, the Bedouins living around Madinah in the Prophet’s time did not establish the Friday prayer.

The Prophet’s words, “Hold fast to the congregation, for the wolf only devours the sheep that strays,” prove that Muslims must avoid division and discord and are duty-bound to remain united. Straying from the community leads to ruin, just as the distant sheep is devoured by the wolf and destroyed. The same applies to anyone who separates from the community—even if only on the basis of a solitary opinion, thinking that the textual evidence supports him. Whenever a person believes that the revealed texts favour a view contrary to that of the majority, he must review the matter again and again, for it cannot be