Differentiating Jumu'ah-V-Zuhr Prayers
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Bismillah-ir-Rahman-ir-Raheem Differentiating Jumu’ah-v-Zuhr Prayers Introduction: Muslims’ Jumu’ah is a participative compulsion and certainly not a social option. It is one of the most exalted Islamic requirements and one of its confirmed obligatory acts. Jumu’ah is indeed a special holy day of the week. Friday1 is considered as a day of specialty, when Muslims will have the opportunity to congregate at a mosque or other religious centre2. The mission objective of Jumu’ah is to listen and heed to special delivery of texts from the Holy Qur’an, special deliberations of the texts for all in the congregation to comprehend, and, delivery of very important messages for Muslims’ wellbeing. Jumu’ah has both congregational prayer services and individual prayer services. After the Jumu’ah, the congregation disperses to regular activity such as employment, educational streams or other daily routine. The other comparative of Zuhr prayer, or as called the "noon prayer," is one of the five3 mandatory Islamic prayers. If counted from midnight only, it is the second prayer of the day. Discussions on Differentiating Jumu’ah-v-Zuhr Prayers: 1) Reverting to the caption of this article, “Differentiating Jumu’ah-v-Zuhr Prayers” both of those comparative topics, will be deliberated upon in the same captioned sequence, and then, explained succinctly in details below. 2) The term Jumu’ah is derived from the same root word from which jama'a is derived, which means "the gathering of people." In many Muslim majority countries, the weekend is inclusive of Fridays, while in some other countries, Fridays are half-days4 for schools and some workplaces. In some other Muslim majority countries, the lunch-break is extended to 2 hours for Fridays only, so that Muslims may get the opportunity to attend to congregational Jumu’ah services. Whereas in Muslim minority countries, the opportunity for Muslims to vacate their places of employment, educational 1 In Islam there is no Sabbath. Friday is a normal day of week and not set aside especially for worshipping only. 2 In some Muslim minority countries, there may not be a mosque within a wider radius of the city or township. Muslims must take recourse to a dedicated building or hall for all their religious dedications and obligations. Such dedicated places are generally referred to as Markaz. Muslims must congregate in largest numbers. 3 Fajr or early morning prayer, which is performed after dawn but before sunrise. Zuhr or early afternoon prayer, which is performed when the sun begins to decline at least 15 minutes after from its vertical overhead until the next prayer. Asr or late afternoon prayer, is performed, when the sun is midway on its course for setting and its time ranges till the sun begins to set. Magrib, or the after sunset prayer, is performed immediately after the sun sets and its time extends till the red glow in the West disappears. Isha, or the night prayer, is performed after the red glow in the West disappears completely and this range extends till midnight. This prayer must be said before going to bed for sleeping, so that the prayer becomes the last act of that date. 4 They generally close at 12-noon on Fridays, to allow people to travel to their mosques. 1 streams or other essential activity or involvement, remains as matters of negotiations between those people and their employers or other controlling principals. 3) There is consensus among Muslims regarding the Friday prayer (Jumu’ah), being wajib5 in accordance with the Quranic verse, as well as the many traditions narrated by all prominent Muslim writers, throughout the 72 subsects6 of Islam. According to the majority of them, Friday prayer is a noted religious obligation, but their differences were based on whether Muslims had the permission to be released from their occupational routines. All Hadith strongly recommend that Muslims must be clean and use pleasant perfume, when going to the mosque for Jumu’ah. The clothes to be worn to Jumu’ah must also be clean and good7. In all mosques, Muslims stand as shoulder-to-shoulder in rows for prayer and therefore, there should not be any offensive body odours, distracting the focus of others in prayer. 4) It becomes imperative to refer to the compulsivity stated in the Holy Qur’an, regarding observance and participation in Jumu’ah. This is stated at HQ62:9-10 “O you who believe, when the call is sounded for prayer on Friday, hasten to the remembrance of Allah and leave off business. That is better for you, if you know. But when the prayer is ended, disperse in the land and seek of Allah’s grace, and remember Allah much, that you may be successful.” This stipulation is well balanced: each day is a regular day but when the call (adhan8) is sounded, Muslims must immediately depart to the mosque. After completion of Jumu’ah, Muslims must disperse and resume their regular activity, because Friday is not a Sabbath for Muslims. 5) Omitting the Jumu’ah service without good excuse is considered one of the gravest sins. Jumu’ah should be participated into by all adults who have the mobility9 to reach the mosque or other place of worship. There are several Hadith on Jumu’ah. As narrated by Abu Huraira: Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) once said, "On every Friday, the angels take their stand at every gate of the mosques, to write the names of the people chronologically; and when 5 A religious duty; something that Muslims are obliged to do. 6 There are 72 subsects in Islam. 60 subsects are widely as Sunni and 12 subsects as Shiites. 7 Hadith Sahih Bukhari on the protocols of going to attend Jumu’ah (11:2; 11:3 and 11:7). 8 The Muslims’ voiced call out for prayer. There are no bells, gongs or horns used in Muslim system. 9 Those people who have physical disability or physical immobility, such as very old age, lameness or paralysis are exempted from this compulsion of going to the mosque, but they must perform those prayers at home. 2 the imam10 sits (on the mimbar)11 they fold up their scrolls and get ready to listen to the sermon." (Hadith Sahih al-Bukhari). 12 6) Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) used to read out from his memory Chapter 87 (Al-Ala) and Chapter 88, (Al-Ghashiya) of the Holy Qur’an, both in Eid Prayers and also in Friday prayers. If one of the Muslim festivals fell on a Friday, Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) would have made sure to read these two Chapters in the prayers. (Hadith Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj an-Naysaburi). 7) Further, Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) is also 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 paradise, and the Last Hour will take place on no other day than Friday." [Hadiths: Ahmad and at-Tirmithi]. 8) Friday prayer must be prayed in congregation, because it is as a compact13. 9) The Jumu’ah prayer is half the Zuhr prayer, for convenience, preceded by a Khutbah (a sermon as a technical replacement of the two reduced rakʿāts of the ordinary Zuhr prayer), and followed by a congregational prayer, led by the imām. Attendance is strictly incumbent upon all adults as residents of the locality. The muezzin14 makes the call to prayer, called the adhan, usually 15–20 minutes prior to the start of Jumu’ah. When the imam takes his place on the mimbar, a second adhan is made. The imam 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 iqama15. This signals the start of the main two rak'ats Fardz prayer of Jumu’ah. It must be noted that sometimes people get delayed and arrive late after the second adhan has already been given. Regardless of lateness, the person must quickly complete the two rak’ats sunnat prayer. 10) It is reiterated that there must be a congregation attending the whole procedures of Jumu’ah. There must be two sermons delivered by the imam before the Fardz prayer and attentively listened to by the 10 The leader of prayer services at any mosque or other prayer place. 11 The mimbar is a pulpit in all mosques throughout the world. It is from this elevated pulpit that the imam delivers all religious services. It is always located to the right of the mehrab (the enclosure from where the imam leads the prayer service), with congregation facing the mehrab. 12 Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was totally illiterate but had a most powerful memory and he recalled 6236 verses of the Holy Qur’an or 114 Chapters of the Holy Qur’an, whenever that need arose. 13 Compact: There is adhan, sunnat prayer, readings from the Holy Qur’an Fardz prayer, important news and closing sunnat prayer. Salat-ul- Jumu’ah is the only prayer system which comes with this special compact. 14 The person who calls out the adhan. 15 The Iqama is the second call to Muslims’ prayer, given after adhan and immediately before the prayer begins. 3 congregation. Further reiteration, Jumu’ah prayer consists of two rak'ats prayer just like morning (Fajr) prayer, offered immediately after Khutbah (sermon): it is a replacement of daily Zuhr prayer. 11) The two afternoon prayers may be combined under extenuating circumstances only, especially when Muslims are in employment, or serving in Disciplined Forces on duty, or when Muslims are at war and under attack, or when Muslims are on a journey, which will last several hours, or some other mitigating circumstances, when the two afternoon prayers may not be easily possible to be performed separately, according to prayer schedules.