and the beginning of the day. However, I do not know of any sunnah concerning this. They have reasoned that the final part of Friday contains the hour in which supplications are answered, so it is hoped that the customary supplication exchanged between the spouses and those who congratulate them will be answered: “May Allah bless you and bestow blessings upon you.”

But it should be asked: was it part of the Prophet’s guidance and sunnah to seek out this time? If this is established, then describing it as recommended is clearly correct. But if it is not established, then no practice should be instituted as a sunnah. The Prophet would marry others off at any time, and he himself would marry at any time; it has not been established that he chose any particular time. Certainly, if it happened to coincide with this time, we would say: this is—Allah willing—a blessed coincidence. But deliberately selecting this time is open to question unless evidence is established for it. The correct view is that whenever it is convenient to conclude the marriage contract—whether in the mosque, the house, the marketplace, an airplane, or the like—it may be concluded; likewise, it may be concluded at any time.

With the Sermon of Ibn Mas‘ud ………

His words, “with the sermon of Ibn Mas‘ud,” refer to the sermon which he narrated from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ: “Indeed, all praise is for Allah. We praise Him, seek His help, and seek His forgiveness.” Al-Rawd (1) adds: “and we repent to Him,” but this has not been reported, so one should limit oneself to: “and we seek His forgiveness. We seek refuge in Allah from the evils within ourselves and from our evil deeds. Whomever Allah guides, none can lead astray; and whomever He leads astray, none can guide. I bear witness that there is no god worthy of worship but Allah alone, without partner, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger.” (2)