Waiting for people to arrive at the Eid Gah

Q: Salaah-286: Please answer the following queries in the light of the Qur'aan and the Ahadeeth. We are seven to eight hundred Muslims in out town. We have a Masjid and an Eid Gah (a place where the Eid salaah is performed). The Eid Gah is used out of the rainy seasons and a time is always fixed for the salaah. However, when the time has already arrived. People are seen still arriving. When people call out that the salaah ought to be started because the time is up, the Imaam tries his best to explain to them that those still arriving would then miss the salaah and waiting five to ten minutes would do no harm. If the salaah is then started when there is time, will the Imaam or the hasty Musallis be sinful (for people missing the salaah)?

Answer: None will have cause for objection if the following guidelines are followed:

1. The Eid salaah should take place at a time that allows people to comfortably prepare themselves in the Sunnah fashion after the Fajr salaah and still make it for the salaah.

2. Because there will always be those who will be late, the Imaam and followers should not be in a hurry and allow five minutes for people to arrive. This will, of course, require patience from all. While the followers may advise the Imaam, they may not dictate to him. The Imaam should also consider the people and not make things difficult for them. He may shorten the Khutbah and Qiraa'ah to make up for lost time. The Eid salaah takes place only twice a year and many people also attend who usually do not perform salaah, together with many ailing, aged and weak people. Such people will be greatly deprived if they miss the salaah. so it will be advisable to wait awhile, thereby practising on the verse of the Qur'aan encouraging Muslims to assist each other in doing good. There are also those who neither care for the inconvenience they cause others nor for their salaah. Waiting for them will be spoiling their habit and need? not be done.

Fatawa Rahimiyyah vol.2