and Ahmad, according to one of the two reports from him, which a number of his followers preferred. It is also an opinion within the Shāfi'ī school, preferred by some of its scholars, such as Abū al-Mahāsin al-Riyānī and others.

The second view is that both are caught by a single takbīr (saying “Allah is greatest”). This is the position of Abū Hanīfah.

(The third view is that the Friday prayer is caught only by catching a rak'ah, whereas congregational prayer is caught by a single takbīr. This is the well-known position in the schools of al-Shāfi'ī and Ahmad. The correct view, however, is the first, for several reasons:

First, the Lawgiver has not made any ruling depend on the time needed for a single takbīr, whether concerning the prescribed prayer time, Friday prayer, congregational prayer, or anything else. It is therefore a criterion to which the Lawgiver has given no weight, and it is not permissible to treat it as legally significant.

Second, the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, made the rulings depend on catching a rak'ah. Making them depend instead on a takbīr disregards what he treated as significant and gives significance to what he disregarded. All of this is unsound in matters where he made the rak'ah the determining criterion and made catching the prayer within its prescribed time depend upon it.

Thus, in the two Sahīh collections, Abū Hurayrah reported that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“If any of you catches a rak'ah of the 'Asr prayer before the setting of