The second argument is that the early generations were exceptionally eager to do good, yet they did not set out for the Friday prayer at sunrise. Mālik objected to going early at the beginning of the day, saying: “We did not find the people of Medina following this practice” (1).
Those who held the first view cited the hadith narrated by Jābir from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace: “Friday consists of twelve (2) hours” (3). They said: The hours conventionally understood are those numbering twelve (4). These are of two kinds: equal hours (5) and temporal hours. They further said: This view is supported by the fact that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, counted only six hours, without going beyond them. If these hours were small subdivisions of the hour in which the Friday prayer is performed, they would not
(1) See Ibn al-Hājj, al-Madkhal (2:279).
(2) Thus in all manuscripts except j, which reads ithnatay ‘ashrata (“twelve”). A similar instance occurred earlier. This wording also appears in Ibn al-‘Arabī’s al-Masālik fī Sharh al-Muwatta’ (2:437). The hadith sources give the grammatically regular form ithnatā ‘ashrata (“twelve”).
(3) Recorded by Abū Dāwūd (1048), al-Nasā’ī in al-Mujtabā (1389) and al-Kubrā (1709), al-Hākim (1:279), and al-Bayhaqī in Shu‘ab al-Īmān (2715), through several routes from Ibn Wahb, from ‘Amr ibn al-Hārith, from al-Jallāh, the client of ‘Abd al-‘Azīz ibn Marwān, from Abū Salama, from Jābir. The hadith’s chain is hasan (“good”) on account of al-Jallāh. Al-Hāfiz graded it authentic in Natā’ij al-Afkār (2:435–436) and reported that Ibn Khuzayma and al-Hākim also graded it authentic. See Bayān al-Wahm wa-l-Īhām (5:354–355).
(4) j: ithnay ‘ashara (“twelve”).
(5) The al-Risāla edition reads ta‘dīliyya, following al-Fiqī’s edition, which altered the main text without justification. Equal hours are also called mustawiya, istiwā’iyya, and i‘tidāliyya; temporal hours are also called qiyāsiyya and mu‘awwaja. See Kashshāf Istilāhāt al-Funūn (1:921). Al-Battānī explained how to determine these hours in al-Zīj al-Sābī (p. 42, Nallino edition).