about the hour on Friday?” He said: I replied, “Yes, I heard him say: ‘I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) say, “It is between the time the imam sits down and the time he finishes the prayer.”’”

As for those who say that it is the time of prayer, they cited the hadith narrated by al-Tirmidhī and Ibn Mājah (1) from ‘Amr ibn ‘Awf al-Muzanī, who said: I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) say, “On Friday there is an hour during which, whatever a servant asks Allah for, Allah grants it to him.” They asked, “O Messenger of Allah, which hour is it?” He replied, “From when the prayer begins until it ends.” However, this hadith is weak. Abū ‘Umar ibn ‘Abd al-Barr (2) said: “As far as I know, this hadith was narrated only by Kathīr ibn ‘Abdullāh ibn ‘Amr ibn ‘Awf, from his father, from his grandfather, and he is not someone whose narration can be relied upon as evidence (3).”

Rawh ibn ‘Ubādah (4) narrated from ‘Awf, from Mu‘āwiyah ibn Qurrah, from Abū Burdah ibn (5) Abī Mūsā, that he said to ‘Abdullāh ibn ‘Umar, “It is the period from when the imam comes out until the prayer is completed.” Ibn ‘Umar replied, “May Allah guide you aright!”

‘Abd al-Rahmān ibn Hujayrah (6) narrated from Abū Dharr that his wife asked him about