380 – Jabir (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: “The Sunnah has laid down that for every forty people and upward there is to be a Jumuʿah (Friday) prayer.” Al-Daraqutni recorded it with a weak chain of transmission. (1)

Status of the hadith:
The report is weak. The author states that al-Daraqutni transmitted it with a weak isnad because it passes through ʿAbd al-ʿAziz ibn ʿAbd al-Rahman ibn Rajih. Ahmad said: “Remove his narrations, for they are lies or fabrications.” Al-Nasaʾi judged him unreliable; al-Daraqutni called him munkar al-hadith; and Ibn Hibban declared it impermissible to cite him as evidence.
Other reports on this issue are groundless. ʿAbd al-Haqq said: “No sound hadith fixes a specific number.” Al-Bayhaqi ruled that a narration like this is inadmissible as proof, and Ibn al-Jawzi also graded it weak.

Vocabulary notes:
• madat al-sunnah – i.e., it has been established and implemented.
• fa-saʿidan (“and upward”): one says, “The number reached such-and-such and upward,” meaning whatever exceeds that. Grammatically it functions as a circumstantial accusative, or through omission of a preposition, and is coordinated with the word “every.”

Points derived from the hadith:
1 – The hadith suggests that whenever forty resident men live within one named settlement, they are required to hold the Jumuʿah prayer.