99 – On the authority of Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī (may Allah be pleased with him): the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “The Friday bath is obligatory upon every muḥtalim (pubescent person).” Reported by the Seven (1).

Vocabulary of the ḥadīth
• wājib (obligatory): Linguistically, “that which has fallen.” Allah says: “Then, when they have fallen on their sides …” (Q 22:36), meaning: they have collapsed. In legal usage it denotes an act whose performer is rewarded for obedience, while its neglecter deserves punishment.
• muḥtalim: with a ḍammah on the mīm, a sukun on the ḥāʾ, followed by tāʾ, lām, and mīm—someone who has reached the age of puberty. Al-Nihāyah states: “Reaching puberty” means the rulings that apply to adult men now apply to him, whether or not he has actually experienced a nocturnal emission. Thus the term muḥtalim here designates a legally responsible adult. The reference to “dreaming” is figurative, and the indicator that rules out the literal sense is that if a wet dream is accompanied by ejaculation it already necessitates a bath, whether on Friday or any other day.

Points inferred from the ḥadīth
1 – The bath may be ascribed to its time, the day of Friday; in that case the bath is specific to the day, and its virtue is attained whether it is performed before or after the prayer. It may also be ascribed to the Friday prayer itself—an example of attributing something to its cause. In that case the virtue of the bath is obtained only when it is performed for the prayer and before it, and this is