Recitation during the Friday prayer

Posted Sep 22, 2010 by Aboo Thaabit with 2 Comments

This is a very common thing amongst khateebs who lead the Friday prayers, and it is not from the Sunnah.

Shaykh Bakr Abu Zayd said: 

The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم always did three things in his recitation in Jumu’ah prayer: he recited al-Jumu’ah (62) and al-Munaafiqoon (63), or al-Jumu’ah and al-Ghaashiyah (88), or al-A’la (87) and al-Ghaashiyah. 

Nowadays it has become common for some of them to ignore that which is prescribed and recite whatever verses the imam sees fit, or soorahs of the Qur’aan that are appropriate to the subject of the khutbah.

This striving to recite something that was appropriate to the topic of the khutbah was not narrated from the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم and was not known among the early generations of this ummah, so adhering to that is an innovation. Similarly, deliberately ignoring what is prescribed and doing something else implies that one believes that there is something missing in what is prescribed and it should be made up, and that may cause confusion to ordinary Muslims. And Allaah knows best. 

Tasheeh al-Du’aa’ (p. 319).