he had lost his sight. Whenever I took him to the Friday prayer and he heard the call to prayer, he would ask Allah to forgive Abū Umāmah As'ad ibn Zurārah. I would (1) hear him say this for some time. Then I said to myself, “It is surely a failing on my part not to ask him about this.” So I took him out as usual, and when he heard the call to the Friday prayer, he asked Allah to forgive him. I said, “Father, why do you ask forgiveness for As'ad ibn Zurārah whenever you hear the call to the Friday prayer?” He replied, “My son, As'ad was the first to lead us in the Friday prayer in Medina before the arrival of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. This was in a depression (2) in the lava field of Banū Bayādah, at a place called Naqīʿ al-Khadamāt.” I asked, “How many of you were there that day?” He replied, “Forty men.”
Al-Bayhaqī said (3): “When Muhammad ibn Ishāq explicitly states in a report that he heard it, and the narrator is trustworthy, the chain of transmission is sound. This hadith has a good chain of transmission and is authentic.” End of quotation.
I say: This was the beginning of the Friday prayer.
Then the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, arrived in Medina. He stayed at Qubā', among Banū 'Amr ibn 'Awf—as Ibn Ishāq stated (4)—on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and laid the foundations of their mosque. He then set out on Friday, and the time for the Friday prayer came while he was among Banū Sālim ibn 'Awf. He performed it in the mosque in the valley bottom. This was (5) the first Friday prayer he performed in Medina, before laying the foundations of his own mosque.