as evidence. That is because their reaching this number happened coincidentally, not deliberately. It was not said that they were instructed to assemble and, once they reached forty, to establish Jumu‘ah. Had the wording of the hadith been like this, it would have contained some basis for argument.
- Jabir said: “The established sunnah is that every forty or more are to have Jumu‘ah, Eid al-Adha, and Eid al-Fitr.” (1)
However, this hadith is not authentic. Thus it becomes clear that the author’s evidence is either explicit but unauthentic, like the hadith of Jabir, or authentic but not explicit, like the hadith concerning Mus‘ab ibn ‘Umayr. A hadith by which legal rulings are established must be both authentic and explicit, for a weak hadith is not proof; likewise, an authentic hadith that is not explicit remains open to more than one interpretation. One of the established principles of scholarly argumentation is that “when a possibility exists, the argument falls.” Accordingly, stipulating forty people for the establishment of Jumu‘ah is unsound, because whatever is built upon something unsound is itself unsound.
It is then said that it is established in Sahih Muslim that, when the caravan arrived in Madinah from Syria, the Companions—who were eagerly awaiting its arrival due to their dire need—dispersed toward it while the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, was delivering the sermon. Only twelve men—fewer than forty—remained with him, and he continued with the Jumu‘ah prayer. (2)
But they said: Perhaps those who left returned immediately, before the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, proceeded with his sermon.