First: It is a matter of certainty that the Prophet ﷺ and his Companions, whenever they happened to be travelling on a Friday, would perform the dhuhr prayer, shortening it. Had the Friday prayer (jumuʿa) been the original obligation for that day, they would have observed it as jumuʿa instead. Second: ʿAbd Allah ibn Maʿdan relates from his grandmother that ʿAbd Allah ibn Masʿud said to us: “If you pray on Friday behind the imam, follow his prayer; but if you pray in your homes, then pray four rakʿas.” Ibn Abi Shaybah records this (1/207/2); the isnad is sound up to Ibn Maʿdan’s grandmother, though I have not identified her. She appears to be a Successor (tabiʿiyya), not a Companion. The report is supported by al-Hasan al-Basri’s statement regarding a woman who attends the mosque on Friday: she follows the imam’s prayer and that suffices her. In another wording he said: “Women used to attend the Friday prayer with the Prophet ﷺ, and it was said, ‘Do not go out except unperfumed, so that no scent is detected from you.’” Both chains are sound. A further narration, through Ashʿath from al-Hasan, states: “The women of the Muhajirun used to perform the Friday prayer with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and they would count it in place of the dhuhr prayer.” I say: Whoever maintains that the basic obligation on Friday is the Friday prayer itself, and that anyone who misses it or for whom it is not obligatory—such as the traveller or the woman—only