He arrived there, and they were hiding (2) in a house, so he led them in Friday prayer while they were forty.

Section: As for when there is no need, it is not permissible [to have more than one] (3). If sufficiency is achieved with two (4), a third is not permitted, and the same applies to any further increase. We know of no dissenter in this, except that it was said to 'Ata': 'The people of Basra are not accommodated by the grand mosque.' He replied: 'Each group has a mosque in which they hold the Friday prayer, and that suffices in place of the Friday prayer in the grand mosque.' The position of the majority is more appropriate, since it was not transmitted from the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—and his Caliphs that they held more than one Friday prayer, as there was no need for that. It is not permissible to establish rulings based on arbitrary opinion without evidence. If they perform two Friday prayers in one city without need, and one of them is the Imam's Friday prayer, then it is valid, whether it took place earlier or later, while the other is invalid. This is because to rule that the Imam's Friday prayer is invalid would be an encroachment upon him and would cause him and those who pray with him to miss the Friday prayer. It would also lead to a situation where, whenever forty people wished to corrupt (5) the prayer of the city's inhabitants, they could do so by gathering in a location and performing the Friday prayer before the people of the city. It was also said: The earlier one is the valid one, because it was not preceded by anything that would invalidate it, and it does not become invalid after its validity by what comes after it. The first view is more correct, for the reason we have mentioned. If one of them is in the congregational mosque (jami') and the other is in a small place that does not accommodate the worshippers, or where they cannot pray due to the Sultan and his troops occupying it, or other such reasons; or if one of them is in the city center and the other is at the far end of the city, the prayer of those in the location where these characteristics exist is valid to the exclusion of the other. This is the view of Malik; for he said: I do not consider...