We have transmitted from Ibn ʿUmar that he used to pray twelve rakʿahs before Jumuʿah, and from Ibn ʿAbbās that he would pray eight. This indicates that their practice fell under unrestricted voluntary prayer, hence the variation in the numbers reported from them. Al-Tirmidhī says in the Jāmiʿ:
“It is related from Ibn Masʿūd that he would pray four rakʿahs before Jumuʿah and four after it, and this is the position adopted by Ibn al-Mubārak and al-Thawrī.”
Abū Shāmah writes ⦗70⦘, after citing what has just been mentioned:
“For that reason the numbers reported from them differ, and the door to voluntary worship is wide open. It is likely that these prayers—or most of them—took place before the adhān and before the time for Jumuʿah had actually entered, for they used to arrive early and continue praying until the imam came out. They did the same with the ʿĪd prayer, even though it is definitively known that the ʿĪd prayer has no attached sunnah. They would pray after the sun had risen, both in the prayer ground and in their homes, and then perform the ʿĪd prayer itself. This has been reported from a group of Companions and Successors, and al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Bayhaqī devoted a chapter to it in