Going to another settlement for the Friday prayer

Question

When the Friday prayer is not permissible in the villages, the people there [can go] to the small town, which is three or four miles from the village — there the Friday prayer is entirely permissible — and they can easily go by bicycle or on foot. (2) But if, merely out of laziness or out of absorption in earning a worldly living, they do not go, but instead of Jumu'a pray Zuhr alone in their own village, and also do not go to the small town to pray the prayer of the two Eids — will they not be sinful [for…

Answer

One should explain the ruling with the utmost sympathy and heartfelt concern and try to have [the Jumu'a in the village] stopped; but if strife arises — for example, people abandon even the five daily prayers, or cause disorder, and it comes to broken heads and lawsuits — then, having explained the ruling, one should keep silent.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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