a communal basis, and it does not discharge another obligation as the Friday prayer discharges the noon prayer. Voluntary prayers are prescribed for residents and travellers alike, such as the midmorning prayer, night prayers, and the regular Sunnah prayers associated with the obligatory prayers. The same applies to communal obligations, such as funeral prayers.

The correct view, without doubt, is the first: neither prayer is prescribed for travellers. The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, undertook many journeys. He performed three pilgrimages of ʿumrah besides the ʿumrah accompanying his Hajj, performed the Farewell Pilgrimage with many thousands accompanying him, and took part in more than twenty military expeditions. Yet no one ever reported that he performed either the Friday prayer or the Eid prayer while travelling. Rather, throughout his journeys he would pray two units at a time, and on Fridays he would pray two units just as on other days.

No one ever reported that, while travelling, he delivered a sermon before the prayer on Friday—whether standing on his feet or mounted on his riding animal, as he would do when delivering the Eid sermon, or from a pulpit, as he would when delivering the Friday sermon. He did sometimes deliver sermons during his journeys as occasions arose, and these were transmitted, as in the hadith of ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr (1). Yet no one ever reported that he delivered a sermon before the prayer on Friday while travelling. Indeed, no one even reported that he recited aloud on Friday. Clearly, had he departed from his usual practice by reciting aloud and delivering a sermon, they would have reported it.

On the Day of ʿArafah, he delivered a sermon to them, then came down and led them in two units of prayer. No one reported that he recited aloud, and that sermon was not for the Friday prayer;