So glory be to Allah! What difference is there between delivering the sermon before the prayer and sitting during it, when both are contrary to the sunnah?!
Fourth: Shaykh Ahmad al-Bannā—may Allah have mercy on him—placed Ahmad’s abridged narration, “He delivered the sermon standing on his feet,” under “Chapters on the Friday Prayer” in his major work, al-Fatḥ al-Rabbānī fī Tartīb Musnad al-Imām Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal al-Shaybānī (The Divine Opening in the Arrangement of the Musnad of Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal al-Shaybani) (6/88), for he said in documenting it: “I have not found it reported by anyone other than Imam Ahmad, and its chain of transmission is sound.” He ought to have included it under “The Two Eids” had he recalled some of the preceding narrations, especially those found in the Musnad of Imam Ahmad, which he himself arranged according to the chapters of jurisprudence; for he should have had them in mind. But Allah has spoken the truth: “Yet you do not will unless Allah wills, the Lord of the worlds.”
- “The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, had forbidden us to eat the meat of our sacrificial animals beyond three days. He said: I went on a journey, then returned to my family several days after Eid al-Adha. My wife brought me a dish of chard into which she had put dried meat, so I said to her: ‘Where did you get this dried meat?’ She replied: ‘From our sacrifices.’ I said to her: ‘Did the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, not forbid us to eat it beyond three days?’ She said: ‘He later granted the people permission to do so.’ I did not believe her until I sent to my brother Qatādah ibn al-Nuʿmān—who had taken part in Badr—to ask him about it. He sent word to me: ‘Eat your food, for she has spoken the truth. The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, granted the Muslims permission to do so.’”
Ahmad recorded it (4/15) from Muhammad ibn Isḥāq, who said: Muhammad ibn ʿAlī