Is not his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): “Whoever takes a bath on Friday like the bath for major ritual impurity

The questioner : He saysThe questioner: Is not his saying (peace and blessings be upon him) to the end of the hadith, evidence for the recommendation of the Friday bath? With details, and may Allah reward you with good?

The Shaykh : Praise be to Allah, and may peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah.
The hadith indicates the virtue of taking a bath on Friday like the bath for major ritual impurity, but it does not specify the ruling of this bath, whether it is obligatory or otherwise. The ruling of the Friday bath is taken from other hadiths that are explicit in indicating the ruling. There are two categories of hadith in this regard:
- One of them: indicates obligation.
- The other: indicates a virtue that some people may mistakenly think contradicts obligation.
The hadiths from the first category are numerous and authentic, found in “the two Sahihs” and others, such as the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family): , and his saying as well: , and his saying: , or as he (peace be upon him) said. These hadiths, on their apparent meaning, require us to stop at the statement of obligation, unless evidence compels the researcher to turn away from the statement of obligation to something less than that. We have not found any evidence that compels us to depart from the apparent indication except the second category mentioned earlier, which is the well-known hadith in the Sunan and others from ... that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) said: . Some scholars infer from his saying (peace be upon him) at the end of this hadith: that it is not obligatory. The truth is that the hadith has no indication of any of that, because the fact that the Friday bath is better applies to the bath whether it is recommended, or a confirmed sunnah, or an obligatory right. All of this falls under his saying (peace be upon him) . In fact, this superiority is more confirmed and realized if we say that the Friday bath is obligatory than if we say it is a sunnah. Just as if we say that the Friday bath is a sunnah, this superiority is more realized than if we say it is merely recommended. Therefore, his saying (peace be upon him) in this hadith: does not contradict that this bath is not obligatory.
Another point that must be mentioned is that this hadith, if we adhere to its apparent indication , meaning it is not obligatory, can be said to have been before the Messenger (peace be upon him) confirmed the obligation of the Friday bath. This is part of the gradual implementation of legislation, which every jurist observes in some of the rulings of the Shari'ah. The most famous example is the gradual prohibition of intoxicants. It is well known that the Companions (may Allah be pleased with them) lived a difficult life materially, with a scarcity of water to help them maintain cleanliness, and because they were engaged in work such as agriculture and farming. It was difficult to command them directly, in their state, with an obligatory bath. Therefore, it came in some hadiths from Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) entered the mosque on Friday and found among them the smell of clothes that had sweated. He said to them: . If you had taken a bath, this was the beginning of the preparation for making the Friday bath obligatory, because it contains a gentle, soft encouragement for these Companions to take a bath on Friday because of the smell, the smell of the clothes, the smell of sweat, and the like. Then other hadiths came, as you heard earlier, containing a confirmed command for the Friday bath. This is what 'Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) understood when he was delivering the Friday sermon, and a man entered upon him (in one narration it was 'Uthman ibn 'Affan) while he was delivering the sermon. 'Umar ibn al-Khattab interrupted his sermon to say to 'Uthman about his lateness. 'Uthman replied that all he had done was hear the adhan, then perform wudu' and come. 'Umar said: “And wudu' as well?! I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) say: .”
'Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) rebuked 'Uthman, in what appeared to 'Umar from him, for limiting himself to wudu' only on that day. This rebuke by 'Umar ibn al-Khattab of 'Uthman, in the presence of the people, makes it very difficult to understand that the Friday bath is one of the virtuous deeds for which its leaver is not blamed, but its doer is rewarded. It is far-fetched that 'Umar ibn al-Khattab would do this if he believed that the Friday bath was not obligatory. This action with this man, who is 'Uthman ibn 'Affan (may Allah be pleased with him), involves exposing him before a gathering of people in a matter that is supposed not to be commanded. We strongly reject the idea that such an action would come from 'Umar ibn al-Khattab. Rather, what corresponds to his rebuke of 'Uthman is that we take the indication of the hadiths from the first category, all of which confirm that the Friday bath is obligatory on every adult person of legal capacity.
This is what we have as an answer to this question.

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh: What concerned us first, what concerned us last: he said to him: “And wudu' as well.”

The questioner: But - Shaykh - the first rebuke ... .

The Shaykh: ... he said: “And wudu' as well?!”.

The questioner: The first rebuke ... .

The Shaykh: May Allah bless you. What did the first rebuke focus on? Was it not on his lateness? We have set that aside. What is in this? There is nothing in this related to this research. Rather, his saying: “And wudu' as well?!” is where the research lies. He is rebuking him for limiting himself to wudu'. So what do you have in this? 'Umar rebukes 'Uthman for limiting himself to wudu' and confirms to him that he was required to take a bath, because 'Umar heard the Messenger say: .
Some scholars say: there is no clear evidence in the hadith or in what 'Uthman did that 'Uthman did not take a bath on that day. This is correct. But what occurred to 'Umar from 'Uthman's action, when he said that all he did was hear the adhan and perform wudu', was that he had not taken a bath. Although it is possible, and this happens to us often, that we take a bath after the Fajr prayer, for example, or in the late morning, and then one of our wudu's is broken, so one finds no way but to perform wudu', because the prayer is not valid. It is possible that this is what happened to 'Uthman ibn 'Affan. At the very least, it can be said: that what concerns 'Uthman, whether he took a bath or not, is a matter that is set aside for us. We cannot be certain in our answer that he took a bath or did not take a bath. Therefore, there is no evidence in that for either party at all. But the clear evidence, as you see, is in the rebuke of 'Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) of 'Uthman regarding what came from 'Uthman to 'Umar, that all he did was hear the adhan and perform wudu'. So he rebuked him for limiting himself to wudu', and he knew, as 'Umar knew, that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) said: .
And here is something that must be pointed out before concluding the answer, which is:
That the Friday bath is not a condition for the validity of the prayer, but rather it is an obligatory etiquette among the etiquettes of one who attends Friday prayer. This means that if a man prays Friday prayer after performing wudu' and has not actually taken a bath, his prayer is valid. All that is the case is that he fell short in implementing that noble Prophetic command: . And on this basis, the other hadith in which it says: confirms the validity of Friday prayer, and that the bath is better than limiting oneself to wudu'. And this, as we have explained to you, does not at all negate the obligation of the Friday bath, as indicated by those authentic hadiths.
In conclusion, I would like to point out a hadith-related aspect. The hadiths in the first category are agreed upon by al-Bukhari and Muslim; therefore, they are authentic by consensus. As for the other hadith, we were unable to find a sound chain of narration for it. All that is the case is that we elevated it from weakness to the rank of authenticity through the totality of its routes. If a researcher finds it difficult to reconcile the first category of hadiths with the other category, he then resorts to weighing them against each other. There is no doubt or ambiguity that the first category is far stronger than the other, for two reasons we mentioned earlier: first, they are numerous hadiths, and second, they are the authentic hadiths found in al-Bukhari and Muslim, unlike the last hadith.

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : As for after the dawn; yes. As for before the dawn; no.

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : Even if his ablution is broken, this is a prior matter.
Yes.