Friday prayer


In Islam, Friday prayer or Congregational prayer is a prayer that Muslims hold every Friday, after noon instead of the Zuhr prayer. Muslims ordinarily pray five times each day according to the sun's sky path regardless of time zones. Jumu’ah means Friday in the Arabic language.

Meaning

It is one of the most exalted Islamic rituals and one of its confirmed obligatory acts.

Etymology

Al-Jumu'ah is derived from the verb ijta'ama which means the gathering together of people.

Obligation

There is consensus among Muslims regarding the Friday prayer being wajib in accordance with the Quranic verse, as well as the many traditions narrated both by Shi’i and Sunni sources. According to the majority of Sunni schools and some Shiite jurists, Friday prayer is a religious obligation, but their differences were based on whether its obligation is conditional to the presence of the ruler or his deputy in it or if it is wajib unconditionally. The Hanafis and the Imams believe that the presence of the ruler or his deputy is necessary; the Friday prayer is not obligatory if neither of them is present. The Imamis require the ruler to be just ; otherwise his presence is equal to his absence. To the Hanafis, his presence is sufficient even if he is not just. The Shafi‘is, Malikis and Hanbalis attach no significance to the presence of the ruler.
Moreover, it has been stated that Jumu'ah is not obligatory for old men, children, women, slaves, travellers, the sick, blind and disabled, as well as those who are outside the limit of two farsakhs.

In the Quran

It is mentioned in the Quran:

In Hadith

relates that the Islamic prophet Muhammad used to read Surah 87 and Surah 88,, in Eid Prayers and also in Friday prayers. If one of the festivals fell on a Friday, Muhammad would have made sure to read these two Surahs in the prayers.
Muhammad is quoted as saying "The best day the sun rises over is Friday; on it Allah created Adam. On it, he was made to enter paradise, on it he was expelled from it, and the Last Hour will take place on no other day than Friday." .
Aws ibn Aws, narrated that Muhammad said: “Whoever performs Ghusl on Friday and causes to do ghusl, then goes early to the mosque and attends from the beginning of the Khutbah and draws near to the Imam and listens to him attentively, Allah will give him the full reward of fasting all the days of a year and observing night-vigil on each of its nights for every step that he took towards the mosque.” .

In Sunni Islam

The Jumu'ah prayer is half the Zuhr prayer, for convenience, preceded by a khutbah, and followed by a congregational prayer, led by the imām. In most cases the khaṭīb also serves as the imam. Attendance is strictly incumbent upon all adult males who are legal residents of the locality. The muezzin makes the call to prayer, called the adhan, usually 15–20 minutes prior to the start of Jum'ah. When the khaṭīb takes his place on the minbar, a second adhan is made. The khaṭīb is supposed to deliver two sermons, stopping and sitting briefly between them. In practice, the first sermon is longer and contains most of the content. The second sermon is very brief and concludes with a dua, after which the muezzin calls the iqāmah. This signals the start of the main two rak'at prayer of Jumu'ah.

In Shia Islam

In Shia Islam, Salat al-Jumuah is Wajib Takhyiri, which means that we have an option to offer Jumuah prayers, if its necessary conditions are fulfilled, or to offer Zuhr prayers. Hence, if Salat al-Jumuah is offered then it is not necessary to offer Zuhr prayer. It is also recommended by Shiite Scholars to attend Jumu'ah as it will become Wajib after the appearance of Imam al-Mahdi and Jesus Christ.
Shiite attach high significance to the presence of a just ruler or his representative or Faqih and in the absence of a just ruler or his representative and a just faqih, there exists an option between performing either the Friday or the zuhr prayer, although preference lies with the performance of Friday prayer.

In the history of Islam

According to the history of Islam and the report from Abdullah bn 'Abbas narrated from the Prophet saying that: the permission to perform the Friday prayer was given by Allah before hijrah, but the people were unable to congregate and perform it. The Prophet wrote a note to Mus'ab b. Umair, who represented the Prophet in Madinah to pray two raka'at in congregation on Friday. Then, after the migration of the Prophet to Medina, the Jumu'ah was held by him.
For Shiites, historically, their clergy discouraged Shiites from attending Friday prayers. According to them, communal Friday prayers with a sermon were wrong and had lapsed until the return of their 12th Imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi. However, among others, Shiite modernist Muhammad ibn Muhammad Mahdi al-Khalisi demanded that Shiites should more carefully observe Friday prayers in a step to bridge the gap with Sunnis. Later, the practice of communal Friday prayers was developed, and became standard there-afterwards, by Ruhollah Khomeini in Iran and later by Mohammad Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr in Iraq. They justified the practice under the newly promoted Guardianship of the Islamic Jurists doctrine. When al-Sadr installed Friday prayer imams in Shia-majority areas—a practice not traditional in Iraqi Shiism and considered "revolutionary, if not heretical"—it put him at odds with the Shia religious establishment in Najaf. Under both Khomeini and al-Sadr, political sermons would be heard.

Attendance rates

The communal prayers have higher compliance of worshipers, as compared to the non-communal ritual prayers. In Turkey for example, the ritual prayers are performed regularly by 44% of the whole adult population, whereas Friday prayers were regularly attended by 56%. However, these figures might not be accurate as many men in Turkey perform the Jumu'ah prayers at the workplace and many boys perform the Jumu'ah prayers at school.
According to surveys conducted by Iran's Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, less than 1.4% of Iranians attend Friday prayers.

Conditions

An accurate Jumu'ah was said to fulfill certain conditions, including the follows :

Khutbah Jumu'ah

  1. The praise and glorification of Allah.
  2. Invocation of blessings on Muhammad and his progeny
  3. Enjoining the participants Taqwa,admonition and exhortations.
  4. Reciting short surah from Quran
  1. What will be useful for all Muslims in this world and hereafter.
  2. The important events all over the world in favor of or disfavor of Muslims.
  3. Special attention should be paid to issues in the Muslim world.
  4. Political and economical aspects of the society and worldwide.
There are many hadiths reported on the significance of Jumu'ah. The Prophet has been reported saying: