Issue Five
The majority of jurists maintain that the Sunnah method of recitation in the Friday prayer is to recite Sūrat al-Jumuʿah in the first rakʿah, because the Messenger of Allah—may blessings and peace be upon him—did so repeatedly. Muslim has transmitted from Abū Hurayrah that “the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—used to recite in the first rakʿah Sūrat al-Jumuʿah, and in the second ‘When the Hypocrites Come to You’ [Sūrat al-Munāfiqūn].”
Mālik also relates that al-Dahhāk ibn Qays asked al-Nuʿmān ibn Bashīr, “What did the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—recite on Friday after Sūrat al-Jumuʿah?” He replied, “He used to recite, ‘Has there come to you the news of the Overwhelming Event?’ [Sūrat al-Gāshiyah].” Mālik regarded acting on this report as recommended; and, in his view, it was likewise commendable to recite “Glorify the Name of your Lord, the Most High” [Sūrat al-Aʿlā], for that has been reported from ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz. Abū Ḥanīfah, however, expressed no definite position on the matter.
The reason for their divergence is the tension between prophetic practice and analogical reasoning. Analogy would suggest that, like the other prayers, the Friday prayer should not have a fixed surah, whereas the evidence of the Prophet’s actual practice indicates that it does.
The Qāḍī states that Muslim has likewise narrated from al-Nuʿmān ibn Bashīr that “the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—used to recite in the two ʿĪd prayers and in the Friday prayer ‘Glorify the Name of your Lord, the Most High’ and ‘Has there come to you the news of the Overwhelming Event?’ And if the ʿĪd and Friday occurred on the same day, he would recite those two surahs in both prayers.” This shows that no particular surah was fixed and that the Prophet did not invariably recite the same passages in the Friday prayer.
Section Four
Rulings Pertaining to Friday
This chapter comprises four issues:
- The ruling on the Friday bath (ghusl).
- Upon whom the Friday obligation falls among those outside the city limits.
- The recommended time for setting out to the Friday prayer.
- The permissibility of buying and selling after the call to the Friday prayer.
Issue One
The scholars disagreed about the Friday bath. The majority held that it is Sunnah, whereas the Ẓāhirīs considered it obligatory. To the best of my knowledge, however, there is no dispute that it is not a condition for the validity of the prayer.
The source of their disagreement is the clash of transmitted reports. In this regard there is the ḥadīth of Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī, in which the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—said, “The purification of Friday is obligatory upon every adult male, just like the purification ….”