Two brothers and I work in an office – there are other muslims there apart from us – but we found, after enquiring of others, to our despair only the 3 of us are ready to pray salat-ul-jumma – we have been doing so until now – one of us is leaving for another job soon – we are not given enough time to attend jumma in the centre of the town – In such a case is it right to establish the jumma with just 2: an imam and a follower – the other brother asked another imam and was told it was permitted by the jumhur al ulemaa : he gave by way of evidence: RasulAllah (saw) said in the hadith sahih:”Two or more constitute a congregation.” as quoted in Ibn Hajar’s (rh) Fath al Bari, would this be permitted according to the hanafee mazhab as I have heard the minimum is three including imam- what would you advise in such a situation?
There are two aspects to your query. One is performing Jummu’ah Salaat at
your workplace and the other is the number of people.
One of the fundamental requirements for the validity of Jummu’ah Salaat is
Izn-e-Aam (general permission). If there are any restrictions (as is
generally the case in offices) for any person coming to your workplace to
perform Jummu’ah Salaat, then it will not be valid. As regards the number of
people required for the validity of Jummu’ah Salaat, according to the
preferred view in the Hanafi Madhab, it is three persons besides the Imaam.
(Tahtaawi Alaa Maraaqiul Falaah).
The above is a condition only for Jummu’ah Salaat and not for a general
Jamaa’ah in which two persons will suffice.
and Allah Ta’ala Knows Best
Mufti Ebrahim Desai
FATWA DEPT.