the second rakʿah before the latecomer has bowed with him, the Friday prayer has slipped away from him and he must perform it as the four-rakʿah ẓuhr prayer.
He states in Sharḥ al-Zād and its marginalia: “Whoever joins the imam for one rakʿah of the Friday prayer completes it as Friday by unanimous agreement. If he joins for less than that—such as when the imam has already raised his head from the second rakʿah and the latecomer then enters—he completes it as ẓuhr, provided he intended the ẓuhr prayer and its time has begun; for the marfūʿ ḥadīth of Abu Hurayrah, ‘Whoever catches one rakʿah of the Friday prayer has caught the prayer,’ related by al-Bayhaqi (3/202); its principal wording is in al-Bukhārī (580) and Muslim (607).”
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Ḥadīth scholars affirm that the tradition under discussion is sound, whether traced back to the Prophet or halted at the Companion, with the mention of “the Friday prayer” in it. It possesses numerous chains of transmission, each supporting the other. Al-Ṣanʿānī remarked, “The abundance of its routes strengthens one another.”
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His phrase “and any other” refers to prayers other than Friday; they follow the same rule, in that a person is deemed to have caught the prayer only when he has caught an entire rakʿah. Abu Hurayrah narrated in a marfūʿ report, “Whoever catches one rakʿah of a prayer has caught the prayer” [al-Bukhārī 580; Muslim 607]. Shaykh al-Islām said: “The Sunnah has established that whoever catches one rakʿah of a prayer has indeed caught the prayer.”