shade cast by the walls that could have sheltered them.
The second wording states that they would perform the Friday prayer with the Prophet ﷺ once the sun had passed its zenith and would then return home.
Scholarly disagreement
The scholars agree that the latest time for the Friday prayer is the same as the end of the time for Dhuhr. They differ, however, over when its time begins.
The three Imams—Abu Ḥanīfah, Mālik, and al-Shāfiʿī—maintain that its time starts with the sun’s decline, just like Dhuhr, and they support this with several proofs, among them the report narrated by al-Bukhārī from Anas: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to pray the Friday prayer when the sun inclined.”
According to the well-known view from Imam Aḥmad, its time begins at the same moment the ʿĪd prayer becomes permissible, and he, too, cites evidence for that. Among his proofs is the first wording of the hadith under discussion, and the report recorded by Muslim and Aḥmad from Jābir: “The Prophet ﷺ would pray the Friday prayer, then we would go to our camels and let them rest when the sun had already declined.”
The majority offer remote interpretations for these hadiths. The sound position, however, is what al-Shawkānī stated in Nayl al-Awṭār: “There is no need for the strained interpretations to which the majority have resorted. Their reliance on the decisive reports that the Prophet ﷺ prayed after the zenith does not negate the permissibility of praying before it.”
I say: The preferable and better course is to pray after the zenith, for that was the Prophet’s usual practice and it is the time on which the scholars are unanimously agreed. Yet if a need arises—such as intense heat with no shade available, or the intent to depart for jihad before the zenith—there is no harm in performing it earlier.
Lessons derived from the hadith
- It is legislated to come early to the Friday prayer in all seasons, winter or summer; the ḥadīth al-ibrād (delaying for coolness) applies only to Dhuhr.
- The apparent sense of the hadith permits performing the Friday prayer before the zenith, for they used to pray and then depart when there was still no shade to shelter under—and, as explained above, this is the correct view.