Is It Permissible to Attend the Jumu‘a or Eid Prayers from Home?

Answered by Shaykh Yusuf Weltch

Question

Are Friday and Eid prayers valid if attended from home when one can hear and see the Imam, but the Quranic recitation is barely audible?

Answer

In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate

No. It is not permissible to follow along with the prayer of the Imam in any prayer (Jumu‘a and Eid especially) from home. This applies even, if one can see or hear the Imam via audio or video streaming.

Part of praying in a congregation behind an Imam is that one must be in the same place as the Imam or that the rows must be connected from the Imam all the way to the last person. [Maydani, al-Lubab fi Sharh al-Kitab]

Hope this helps
Allah knows best
[Shaykh] Yusuf Weltch
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Shaykh Yusuf Weltch teaches Arabic, Islamic law, and spirituality. After accepting Islam in 2008, he completed four years at the Darul Uloom Seminary in New York, where he studied Arabic and the traditional sciences.

He then traveled to Tarim, Yemen, where he studied for three years in Dar al-Mustafa under some of the most outstanding scholars of our time, including Habib Umar Bin Hafiz, Habib Kadhim al-Saqqaf, and Shaykh Umar al-Khatib.

In Tarim, Shaykh Yusuf completed the memorization of the Quran and studied beliefs, legal methodology, hadith methodology, Quranic exegesis, Islamic history, and several texts on spirituality. He joined the SeekersGuidance faculty in the summer of 2019.