the sun has passed the meridian.” This indicates that Abu Bakr’s Friday prayer, may Allah be pleased with him, was close to the time of zenith. The view that the Friday prayer is valid before the sun passes the meridian is the position of the school, and one of its distinctive rulings.

The second view is that it is not valid except after the sun has passed the meridian. This is the view of the other three imams.

The third view is that it is valid in the sixth hour, one hour before zenith, based on the hadith of Abu Hurayrah, may Allah be pleased with him: “Whoever goes early in the first hour, then the second, then the third, then the fourth, then the fifth—when the imam comes out, the angels attend to listen to the remembrance.” (1) Thus, according to the implication of Abu Hurayrah’s hadith, the imam comes out in the sixth hour. For this reason, al-Muwaffaq, may Allah have mercy on him, stated as the preferred view in al-Mughni—he being one of the foremost followers of Imam Ahmad—that it is not valid before the sixth hour, nor at the beginning of the day, as many of the school’s scholars held, including al-Khiraqi. This is the stronger view: it is not valid at the beginning of the day; rather, it is only valid in the sixth hour. Even according to the view that it is valid in the sixth hour, it is preferable for it to be after the sun has passed the meridian, in agreement with the majority of scholars.

“If its time expires before the opening takbir, they pray Zuhr; otherwise, it is Friday prayer.”

His statement, “If its time expires before the opening takbir, they pray Zuhr; otherwise, it is Friday prayer,” means that if the time for Friday prayer ends before they can perform the opening takbir within its time, they pray Zuhr. This issue is nearly hypothetical rather than actual, for it is unlikely that the people of an entire town would delay the Friday prayer until only enough time remained for the minimum required sermon and the opening takbir.