Is the Friday Prayer Valid in Prison?

Answered by Ustadh Salman Younas

Question: Assalam aleykum

Is the friday prayer valid in prison?

Answer: assalamu alaykum

There are leading Hanafi scholars who have deemed it valid for prisoners to conduct a Friday prayer.

Although a number of texts in the school stipulate unrestricted public access as a condition for a valid Friday prayer, these texts also identify exceptions to this rule, such as when access to the public is restricted due to some overriding interest (e.g. safety). Some texts, such as al-Hidaya of Imam al-Marghinani, do not stipulate this condition of public access at all.

Therefore, there is a strong basis to state that it is valid for people in prison to perform the Friday prayer provided that all other conditions of the prayer are fulfilled. This is all in addition to the fact that these individuals can follow what Shaykh Rami Nsour has stated in regards to the Maliki school.

[Ibn Abidin, Hashiya (2:152); Mahmud al-Hasan, Fatawa Mahmudiya (8:39)]

[Ustadh] Salman Younas

Checked and approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Ustadh Salman Younas graduated from Stony Brook University with a degree in Political Science and Religious Studies. After studying the Islamic sciences online and with local scholars in New York, Ustadh Salman moved to Amman. There he studies Islamic law, legal methodology, belief, hadith methodology, logic, Arabic, and tafsir.