Is it a Condition for the Friday Prayer that Forty persons should attend?

Question :

I have read in some books that one of the conditions for establishing the Friday prayer is that there be forty persons present upon whom the Friday prayer is an obligation. And previously, in the magazine Ad-Da'wah, a ruling from His Eminence the Shaikh has been published which states that it may be established if there are two present with the Imam. How can we reconcile these two views?

Answer:

Making the presence of forty people a condition for the establishment of the Friday prayer is a saying of some of the scholars, including Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal - may Allah have mercy on him - but the most authoritative saying is that it is permissible with less than forty - and the least number is three, as was made clear in the ruling mentioned by the questioner... since there is no proof that forty are required. The Hadith which states that forty are required is weak, as was shown by Al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar in Bulugh Al-Maram.

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