Holding the Congregation at Home

Question

In some work of Mawlana Thanawi ﵀, which I do not remember, and in some part of “Idah al-Bukhari”, the respected Mawlana Sayyid Fakhr al-Din (madda zilluhu), the head teacher of Dar al-‘Ulum Deoband, wrote somewhere that performing a fard prayer outside the mosque without an excuse is not permissible, and this ruling was written for the Hanafis; it was also written that if [a person] holds a congregation at home with his family, it is permissible — and that only when the congregation in the mosque has already…

Answer

If there is a mosque nearby and a person, without an excuse, abandons the congregation there and performs his prayer at home, then, although the obligation is discharged, this is a very great deprivation [of reward]. In the noble hadith it is stated: [ar]لا صلاة لجار المسجد إلا في المسجد[/ar] “There is no prayer for the neighbour of the mosque except in the mosque.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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