Source: Fatāwā Amunpuri by Shaykh Ghulam Mustafa Zaheer Amunpuri
❖ Question
Is participating in the congregational prayer (jamāʿah) obligatory?
✿ Answer (Translation)
The preferred and strongest view (ar-rajjāḥ) is that joining the congregation is obligatory. A person who abandons the congregational prayer without a valid excuse is sinful. A severe warning/threat (waʿīd) has been communicated concerning abandoning the jamāʿah.
◆ Evidence (Hadith)
Sayyidunā Abū Hurayrah (raḍiya Allāhu ʿanhu) narrated that the Messenger of Allāh (ṣallá llāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) said:
“By the One in Whose hand is my soul! I intended to command that wood be gathered and they be burnt (i.e. their houses set on fire); then I intended to call to prayer, then to appoint someone to lead the people in prayer, and I would go after those men who did not join the congregation and burn their houses.”
(Sahīh al-Bukhārī: 644; Sahīh Muslim: 651)
✅ Conclusion (literal rendering of the fatwā)
① The stronger legal opinion presented here: attendance in jamāʿah is obligatory.
② Leaving jamāʿah without excuse is blameworthy and comes with a stern warning as exemplified by the above ḥadīth.
هٰذَا مَأْوَافٍ عِندِي، وَاللّٰهُ أَعْلَمُ بِالصَّوَابِ
(This is what is held here; and Allah knows best what is correct.)
