Is there a sunnah before the Friday prayer?

The questioner : Is there a sunnah of two rak'ahs for the Friday prayer?

The Shaykh : Regarding the Friday prayer, if I am to be precise with your wording, "sunnah," the term sunnah has a jurisprudential meaning: it is the act of worship that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) did constantly or most of the time. So, if that is what you mean by the word "sunnah," I say that there is no sunnah before the Friday prayer, but there is a sunnah after it. In this post-prayer sunnah, the Muslim has a choice between praying two rak'ahs or four, and he has a choice between praying them in the mosque or at home, and at home is better, based on the saying of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him): So, before the Friday prayer, there is no sunnah in the jurisprudential sense we just mentioned. However, there is a desirable, recommended matter for everyone who enters the mosque on Friday: he should pray in some hadiths, in another hadith, , he prays two, four, six, eight, or ten rak'ahs, until the khatib ascends the minbar, at which point the prayer ends and he prepares to listen and pay attention. This is the answer to your question.

The questioner : This is called absolute voluntary prayer.

The Shaykh : Yes, exactly. Please, go ahead.


The questioner : Many people on Friday come after the second adhan, and some come at the end of the khutbah. Is the Friday prayer recorded for them as it is for one who came before the first adhan?

The Shaykh : Yes, whoever catches one rak'ah of the Friday prayer has caught the Friday prayer, and whoever does not catch one rak'ah, it becomes Zuhr. I have answered you, because the one who catches one rak'ah did not catch the first rak'ah, and consequently did not catch the khutbah. So the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: .


The questioner : So the khutbah has no importance? I do not want to listen to the khutbah; I will pray the two rak'ahs of Friday and leave?

The Shaykh : May Allah forgive you, say "Ameen," because it is a supplication for everyone, if Allah wills.

The questioner : Amen.

The Shaykh : This, my brother, opens a door of jurisprudence for us, specifically regarding prayer. Without the other acts of worship, its rulings differ; some are conditions or pillars. The nature of a condition or a pillar is that the act of worship is not valid—it is invalid—without them. Some of these acts, or parts of the act of worship which is prayer, are not a condition or a pillar, but are a fard or a wajib. The difference between a fard and a wajib is that what necessitates the loss of the entire act of worship if it is neglected is the fard or the wajib. Now, let us give an example of what we are discussing. Our Lord said: , so it is not permissible for a person, as soon as he hears the adhan, to do anything, such as buying or selling, which would be invalid and not established, and he should go to the remembrance of Allah, which is listening to the khutbah. This is obligatory upon him, but it does not mean that if he misses this obligation, the prayer becomes invalid, because it is not a pillar of the pillars of prayer. Do you understand? If we take the verse, we pay attention to listening to the khutbah, especially since we are in need of it more than ever in this time when the ambition of people, young and old, has turned away from knowledge, both learning and teaching. I witnessed in some mosques in Damascus that we would enter at any time of the prayer and find circles established at the edges of the mosque, thisThe Shaykh : one teaching these students this hadith, this one teaching tafsir, this one teaching fiqh, nahw, language, and so on. Now, all the mosques have become empty, and the treatments issued by the Ministry of Awqaf are themselves in the style of Abu Nuwas's treatment: "And I treated it with what was the disease." The prayer is over, the doors are locked, instead of us encouraging people to fill the mosques, and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) made it part of ribat that the Muslim waits for the prayer from one prayer to the next. The point is that today we have become far from Islamic life, completely far. Yes, what remains for us? What remains are things that are necessary, among which are the Friday prayer and the Friday khutbah. So you say, "Then there is no necessity to attend the Friday khutbah?" There is no necessity for the validity of the Friday prayer, which is a fard, but it is a necessity in itself, independent, that must be fulfilled in executing the previous divine command: .