The small and the large mosque

Question

In the congregational mosque of Khurja about fifty people can pray in one row, and about six to seven hundred people can fit into the whole mosque. Does this mosque have the ruling of a large mosque (masjid kabir) or of a small mosque (masjid saghir)? What is the definition of a small mosque and of a large mosque? And what rulings apply to those praying with respect to these two kinds of mosques? The respected scholar mentioned calls this mosque a large mosque, while other respected ‘ulama call it a small mosque.

Answer

A mosque that is forty Shar‘i gaz (the gaz is a unit of length; the Shar‘i gaz equals the cubit, dhira‘) in length and the same in breadth is a large mosque; one that is smaller than this is a small mosque (thus in “Radd al-Muhtar”).

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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