Are Farmers outside the City obliged to attend the Friday Prayer?

Question :

Some people leave the city to work on a farm and they remain there for the duration of the work every year, for a period of not less than two months and not exceeding four months; and it is difficult for them to return to the city in order to perform the Friday prayer during this time. Is the Friday prayer an obligation upon them, or is it permissible for them, or is it not allowed for them to perform it in their place of work, and are they required to return to the city, in spite of the difficulty, or are they not required to perform it, like the traveller? And (if so,) what is the period of time during which they are relieved of the obligation of performing the Friday prayer while they are staying in their place of work?

Answer:

If there are local residents in the farms in which they work, then they must offer the Friday prayer with those residents. And they may either offer the Friday prayer with them, or they may pray with others who are able to perform it, based upon the general meaning of the evidences which prove that one must pray it and that one must strive for it.

And if those who work in these farms can hear the Athan for Friday prayer from their village or another village near their farms, they must strive to attend it with the Muslim congregation, based upon the generality of Allah's Words:
O you who believe! When the call is proclaimed for the Salah (prayer) on Friday (Jumu'ah prayer), hasten to the remembrance of Allah [Jumu'ah religious talk (Khutbah) and Salah (prayer)].

If there are no resident people in these farms and they do not hear the Athan for Friday prayer from the villages around their farms, then they are not obliged to perform the Friday prayer and they should offer the Zuhr prayer in congregation, because in the time of the Prophet, there were tribes and farms around Al-Madinah and he did not order those in them to come to the Friday prayer; if he had done so, it would have been transmitted. This proves that it is not obligatory upon them, due to the hardship it would entail.

Source:
The Permanent Committee
Fatawa Islamiyah, Vol. 2 Pages 451-452

---

Read more: