Chapter: The Friday Prayer (Jumuʿah)

Friday is the finest day of the week. Allah has singled it out for the Muslims and let the nations before them miss its virtue, as a mark of His generosity and favor toward this community.

The day possesses its own acts of worship, foremost among them the Friday prayer itself, which is the most emphatically obligatory of all the prayers. It is also recommended to recite Surahs as-Sajdah and al-Insan in the dawn (Fajr) prayer, Surah al-Kahf during the day, to send abundant blessings upon the Prophet ﷺ, to bathe, apply fragrance, and wear the best clothes one can afford. One should head to the mosque early, occupy oneself with remembrance and supplication until the sermons begin, and then listen attentively, for on this day there is an hour of acceptance during which no supplicant is turned away.

Scholars differ over the exact timing of that hour. Some say it extends from the imam’s sitting on the pulpit until the prayer concludes; others maintain that it is the final hour after ‘Asr. The latter is the view of the majority of the Companions and their Followers and was preferred by Imam Ahmad.

The prayer itself has rulings unique to it: attending it is strongly stressed; residence within the locality is a condition for its obligation; the two sermons precede the prayer; the Qur’an is recited aloud; and buying or selling becomes forbidden once the call to prayer has been made. The warning against absenting oneself from it is sterner than any reported concerning the ‘Asr prayer.

For these reasons the Muslims have unanimously agreed that the Friday prayer is an individual duty, and they regard it as the greatest gathering of the believers after the standing at ‘Arafah.

Shaykh Ibn al-Qayyim devoted an extensive chapter to it in his work Zad al-Maʿad fi Hady Khayr al-‘Ibad.