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Jummah prayer or Friday congregational prayer:
You might hear many modernists say that the Quran does not mention anything about Friday congregational prayer. But they are wrong. They say this because they read the Quran without understanding it, or by purposely distorting the translations.
"O we who believe! When the call is heard for the prayer of the day of congregation, haste unto remembrance of Allah and leave your trading. That is better for you if we did but know."[62:9](Surah Al-Jumu'ah)
As we can see ourselves, in the above Verse the Noble Quran doesn't only refer to the Jummah prayer but also gives a lot of importance to it. The Arabic word "
Jumu'ah" or :Jumm'ah"
means
'congregation'.
This congregational prayer is offered once a week in the afternoon and it replaces the regular Zohr(or Dohr) prayer offered on other days. It's known as
salaat-al-Jummah.
It comes on the day known as 'Friday' in the list of the 7 christian week names.
The Jummah prayer is an obligation (fard) for men and is recommended for women to be performed at a mosque along with the congregation (Jamm'ah or jamm'at). Women also have the option of performing the Zohr prayer instead, either privately or in a mosque. Anyone who is unable to join a congregation for jumm'ah is required
to make up
the prayer
with a regular Zohr prayer. The purpose of this weekly congregational prayer is to give believers a chance to offer prayer together once a week, so that they can see and meet the people of their community at a common venue. And indeed the masjid is the best common venue for believer.
For Muslims living in the West it might be harder to attend congregational prayer in the afternoon, even though it's only once a week, primarily because of the long
distances
, the absense of masjids in all
neighborhoods
and no additional breaks on Friday at workplaces. That's indeed unfortunate. But let such folks try to attend the Friday
prayers
to the best of their abilities. After all, Allah sees our efforts and intentions a lot more than what we actually achieve. He is infinitely Merciful.
The method of offering Jummah prayer is exactly the same as all other
prayers
, except that it's shorter than the regular Zohr prayer and consists of only 2 rakats like the Fajr prayer. The Jummah prayer is preceded by a
sermon
known as
"Khutba"
in Arabic. The
sermon
can be in any language which is understood by majority in the congregation.
By
reading
Verse 62:11 of the same Surah Al-Jumm'ah, it seems very possible that the
system
of delivering the khutba (
sermon
) was done by the Prophet (SAW).
"But when they spy some merchandise or pastime they break away to it and leave thee standing. Say : That which Allah hath is better than pastime and than merchandise, and Allah is the Best of providers." [62:11](Surah Al-Jumm'ah)
The above Verse is said to refer to an incident when the Prophet (saw) was explaining and talking to the people of congregation during the Jummah prayer (which was very likely the
sermon
) when most people of this congregation got distracted by the noise of celebration going on outside and ran to see it, leaving the Prophet (SAW) by himself.
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