“O you who believe, when the call is made for prayer on Friday, hasten to the remembrance of Allah and leave off trade. That is better for you, if only you knew.” (9)

“Say, ‘O Jews, if you claim that you are allies of Allah to the exclusion of other people’”—that is, to the exclusion of Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, and his Companions—“‘then wish for death, if you are truthful.’” That is, pray for death for yourselves, if you are truthful in claiming that you are the children and beloved ones of Allah, for death is what will bring you to Him. “But they will never wish for it because of what their hands have sent ahead; and Allah knows the wrongdoers. Say, ‘Indeed, the death from which you flee will surely meet you. Then you will be returned to the Knower of the unseen and the seen, and He will inform you of what you used to do.’”

Allah, exalted is He, says: “O you who believe, when the call is made for prayer on Friday,” meaning, on Friday, just as He says: “Show me what they have created in the earth”—that is, in the earth—[that is, in the earth] (1). By this call, He means the adhan given when the imam sits upon the pulpit for the sermon.

Abd al-Wahid al-Malihi informed us; Ahmad ibn Abd Allah al-Nu'aymi informed us; Muhammad ibn Yusuf informed us; Muhammad ibn Isma'il narrated to us; Adam narrated to us; Ibn Abi Dhi'b narrated to us, from al-Zuhri, from al-Sa'ib ibn Yazid, who said: The first call on Friday, during the time of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, Abu Bakr, and Umar, was made when the imam sat upon the pulpit. Then, when Uthman became caliph and the people increased in number, he added the second call at al-Zawra' (2).