Please contribute generously in order to ensure the continuity of our website InshaAllah.
I am a university student, and the problem is that one of my classes is at the same time as the iqaamah for Jumu‘ah prayer. I asked the lecturer to let me come half an hour late, but he did not allow that. In fact, he even marked me down as absent one time. I have a recess of fifteen minutes, but I cannot go to the mosque and come back in that time. There is a prayer room in the University, but there is no khutbah, and there is no Jumu‘ah prayer there. I hope that you can advise me about that.
Praise be to Allah.
You should understand that Jumu‘ah prayer is obligatory for the able-bodied Muslim man, and that staying away from it is a grave sin. What is required is to be very keen to attend this prayer regularly, for it is a weekly prayer on a day that is like an Eid for the Muslims, the greatest and best of the days of the week. So it is not permissible to be heedless or negligent about it.
The scholars of the Standing Committee for Issuing Fatwas were asked:
When is the prayer (i.e., Jumu‘ah prayer) regarded as obligatory, especially since most of the time we have some friends who say that their timetable conflicts with Jumu‘ah prayer? What do you think we should do – should the student neglect his classes and go to Jumu‘ah prayer, knowing that in Turkey, Friday is a regular day?
They replied:
Jumu‘ah prayer is an individual obligation (fard ‘ayn); it is not permissible to miss it because of working hour or study, and the like. Allah, may He be glorified, says (interpretation of the meaning):
“And whoever fears Allah - He will make for him a way out
And will provide for him from where he does not expect”
[at-Talaaq 65:2-3].
And Allah is the source of strength; May Allah send blessings and peace upon our Prophet Muhammad and his family and companions. End quote.
Shaykh ‘Abd al-‘Azeez ibn ‘Abdillah ibn Baaz, Shaykh ‘Abd ar-Razzaaq ‘Afeefi, Shaykh ‘Abdullah ibn Qa‘ood.
Fataawa al-Lajnah ad-Daa’imah (8/183-184).
This pressure that is being put on you with regard to your upholding the rituals and acts of worship of Islam, and the impact that this is having on your religious commitment and your manners and behaviour, is the reason why the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) forbade the Muslim to settle among the disbelievers, because that involves many risks that could undermine your religious commitment and manners.
So you should rethink your living and studying in a foreign country, and whether the conditions of that being permissible are applicable in your case or not.
And Allah knows best.