On the Friday Prayer

Setting out for the Friday prayer and attending it are individual obligations. Allah, Mighty and Majestic, says:

“O you who believe, when the call is made for prayer on Friday, hasten to the remembrance of Allah.” [Al-Jumuʿah: 9]

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “Whoever misses the Friday prayer three times without an excuse or illness, Allah will seal his heart with the seal of hypocrisy.” It is therefore impermissible to absent oneself from it except because of an excuse or illness, as mentioned in the hadith.

Such excuses fall into three categories. The first comprises those unanimously accepted as permitting absence, such as illness and being occupied with attending to a deceased person’s funeral arrangements, as stated in the reports transmitted by Ibn al-Qāsim. This means that one cannot find anyone to shroud the deceased and fears that the body will deteriorate if this is postponed until after the Friday prayer. It also includes attending to someone who is at the point of death, breathing his last. This is stated in the aforementioned reports and was related by Ibn Habīb from Mālik. He also said concerning a blind man who has no guide that the obligation of Friday prayer is waived for him.

The second comprises excuses over which there is disagreement, such as the case of those afflicted with leprosy, because of the harm their mingling with others in the congregational mosque causes, and rain. In my view, the statements concerning rain do not represent a genuine disagreement; rather, the ruling depends on the severity of the rain. Allah Most High knows best. There is also a disagreement of little weight concerning a newlywed’s absence from it.

The third comprises circumstances unanimously held not to permit absence, such as a debtor’s fear that his creditors will pursue their claims against him and have him imprisoned, and similar circumstances.