Holding the Friday prayer for fear that people will abandon prayer

Question

There is a settlement here, inhabited for hundreds of years, in which there were about fifty or sixty Muslim houses; in this settlement there is also a masonry mosque that has existed since ancient times. At present the Muslim population is about ten or twelve houses, and the Friday prayer has been held in this mosque since ancient times. And right here, within three miles, there is a place where there is a graveyard, a mosque, etc., and where the Eid prayers are held, and nowhere else are they held.

Answer

In a settlement, according to the Hanafis, Jumu'a is not permissible; rather, the Zuhr prayer is fard. If they pray the Friday prayer, it will be a nafl prayer, and praying it with congregation and in daytime with audible recitation (jahr) is makruh tahrimi, and the fard of Zuhr will not be discharged from [their] responsibility by it — it will remain as it was.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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