Who Has the Right to Change the [Prayer] Times?

Question

(1) Is the mosque’s mutawalli (trustee) authorised to fix the times of the prayers and the congregation or not? By old custom it is the imam himself who has always fixed the time. (2) If the right to change the times does belong to the mosque’s mutawalli, then whom should he consult: the residents of the neighbourhood, the worshippers, the trustees of the mosque where Jumu‘a is held, those who pray Jumu‘a, or the imam and khatib? The misfortune is that among Muslims factions have formed even over trivial matters.

Answer

(1) The right belongs to the imam himself, but he too should take the worshippers into consideration. (2) After answer (1) there is no need to answer this. Dispute and discord for the sake of one’s personal interests, or merely out of opposition, is an utterly ill-omened thing and must be avoided completely.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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