Moreover, who can determine that only enough time for the opening takbir remains before the shadow of an upright object becomes equal to its length? This is extremely difficult, and in earlier times they did not have such precision in calculation. In reality, then, this is among the hypothetical issues. Yet the jurists—may Allah have mercy on them and reward them on behalf of the community of Muhammad—would posit conceivable cases, fearing that one might occur even once in a thousand years, in order to train the mind to apply particular cases to their underlying principles. Sound instruction and education consist in the teacher mentioning the foundational principles and then deriving subsidiary rulings from them, even if their occurrence is rare or merely hypothetical.

Thus, the author’s statement, “If its time expires before they perform the opening takbir, they pray Zuhr,” is because Zuhr may be made up, whereas Friday prayer may not be made up. However, the obligatory sermon must precede the opening takbir—that is, two sermons with their integral elements—followed by the opening takbir. This is the view adopted by the author, based on the school’s position that catching the opening takbir counts as having caught the prayer. According to the school, in every case, catching the prayer is by catching the opening takbir, except in one case: a man does not catch the Friday prayer unless he catches a complete rak‘ah, as will come, Allah willing.

The correct view is that one only catches any prayer by catching a rak‘ah, due to the Prophet’s ﷺ statement: “Whoever catches one rak‘ah of the prayer has caught the prayer.” (1) This is the explicit wording of the hadith, and its implied meaning is that whoever does not catch a rak‘ah has not caught the prayer. This applies generally to all cases of catching the prayer. One example is:

1—If a woman begins menstruating after sunset, with enough time remaining for the opening takbir