399 – Ibn ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with them) said: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ, Abū Bakr, and ʿUmar used to perform the two Eid prayers before the sermon.” Agreed upon. (1)
Lexical notes
• kāna: Al-Kirmanī said that this construction denotes continuity.
• al-ʿīdayn (the two Eids): the dual of ʿīd, namely Eid al-Fiṭr and Eid al-Aḍḥā. The word ʿīd derives from ʿāda yaʿūdu (to return); its wāw became a yāʾ because it is silent and preceded by a kasrah. The plural is aʿyād. Strictly speaking it should be aʿwād, as it comes from ʿawd, but the yāʾ remained fixed from the singular.
Points derived from the two hadiths
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The prescribed practice is that the Eid prayer be offered before the sermon. This is the view of the vast majority of scholars. Al-Tirmidhī said: “The people of knowledge, among the Companions of the Prophet ﷺ and others, act upon the rule that the two Eid prayers precede the sermon.” Al-Ḥāfiẓ added: “The jurists of the major centers hold the same view, and some even regard it as a consensus.”
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If someone delivers the sermon before the prayer, the sermon is not counted as valid, in agreement with Abū Ḥanīfah and al-Shāfiʿī. Al-Majd said: This is the position of most scholars.
The wisdom behind delaying the sermon here—Allah knows best—is that the Friday sermon is a condition for the prayer, and a condition must come before that which it conditions, whereas the Eid sermon is not a condition but rather a Sunnah.