I am doing Post graduation from a European country. Here in the students' hostel the person who is an Imaam for Jum'ah' lives with a girl in the same room (without marriage), some people here doesn't comes to Jum'ah' due to this, some thinks this doesn't matter. I request you to please tell weather we can do Jum'ah' with this person as Imaam or better change him. I request you to please kindly mail me all the details regarding this. Thanking you, waiting for the reply.

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 is His slave and Messenger. We ask Allaah to exalt his mention as well as that of his family and all his companions.

There is no doubt that it is dissoluteness, a sin and a means of committing adultery or fornication for a man to reside with a marriageable woman in the same room. It is an obligation on this man to fear Allaah and repent to Him. Whoever knows him should remind him of Allaah and of His severe Punishment. For more benefit on the prohibition of mixing, please refer to Fatwa 84281.

As regards praying behind him, praying behind a dissolute person is permissible but it is disliked according to the majority of the scholars. If the prayer of a person is valid, then the prayer of other people who pray behind him is also valid. We clarified the ruling of praying behind a dissolute person in Fatwa 88729. Therefore, it is forbidden not to perform the Friday prayer on the pretext that the Imaam is dissolute because it is an obligation to perform the Friday prayer. The dissoluteness of the Imaam does not exempt one from performing the prayer. However, if it is possible to replace this Imaam with another Imaam who is just and who fulfils the conditions for being an Imaam which are mentioned in Fatwa 90830, then this is more appropriate, and it might even be an obligation to do so, if one takes into account the opinion of the scholars like the Hanbali school who are of the view that the prayer behind a dissolute person is not valid.

Allaah Knows best.