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Pursuing a job that entails missing Friday and 'Eed prayers
Fatwa No: 210889

Question

salaam alaikum, dear brother/sister (who ever reads this) in islam may allah's blessings be with you. I am an electronics and communication engineer working in kuwait with a stable job from 7 am to 3 pm. HOWEVER the job that i am pursuing is not the one that i am interested in. I would like to be an Air traffic controller and the timings for this job are in shifts and coincide with prayer times and also there is no guarantee that i may get to pray friday prayers or eid prayers as there are no holidays as such for air traffic controllers. my question is can i still work towards being an air traffic controller or is it forbidden to go ahead despite knowing that there is a chance of missing prayers which include fridays and eid ??

Answer

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His Slave and Messenger.

There is nothing wrong with pursuing that job, and do not let the possibility of missing some Friday prayers because of it, prevent you from that. That is because the current permissible matter is not to be left for an obligatory matter whose obligation has not become due yet. Al-Kharashi said: “‘Ali Al-Ujhoori said, it is permissible for one to sleep at night even if he thinks that his sleeping will last until the time of Fajr prayer ends. So, one should not leave something permissible for something that has not become obligatory on him yet as reported by Al-Baaji from our companions (the Maaliki scholars).” [End quote]

However, if you got that job, then you are an employee and it is obligatory upon you to attend Friday prayer because its duration is excluded from the Ijaarah (hiring) contract, unless you fear that a harm may be caused to the work for which you are hired. If this is the case, then you will be given concession not to attend Friday prayer. For more benefit, please refer to Fatwa 162925.

As for ‘Eed prayer, there is no blame on you if you miss it at all because it is a Sunnah or Fardh Kifaayah (collective obligation).

Allaah Knows best.

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