Ten rules about Jummah (Friday)

1. It is better to prepare for the Jummah from Thursday after Asr, turn attention to invocation, seeking forgiveness and tasbih as the merits of this time are equal to those of the auspicious unknown time of Friday when supplications are accepted.

 

2. Make your clothes clean on this day, use scent and keep your mind free from anxieties so that you may rise up with a free mind on Friday morning. Pass Thursday night by reading the Quran and praying.

 

3. Take bath in the morning of Friday. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: It is obligatory on every mature man to take bath on Friday. He said let male or female who attends Jummah prayer take bath.

 

4. It is commendable to take recourse to beauty on this day to take fine dress, to be pure and to use scent. Regarding purity, cleanse your teeth, cut your hairs; slip-your moustache and –do everything necessary for purity.

 

5. It is commendable to go to the congregational mosque in the morning. The Prophet said: He who goes to Jumma in the early part gets rewards of the sacrifice of a camel and he who goes at the second time gets the rewards of the sacrifice of a cow and he who goes at the third time gets the reward of the sacrifice of a goat and he who goes at the fourth time gets the reward of the sacrifice of a cock. He who goes at the fifth stage gets the reward of the charity, of an egg. When the Imam gets up for khutba, record is folded up and pen is lifted up.

 

6. Nobody should go to the front row of the mosque crossing the necks of men. The Prophet said: On the resurrection day such a person will be made a bridge and the people would tread over him. Once when the Prophet was reciting khutba, he noticed that a man was advancing towards the front row after crossing over the necks of man. After finishing prayer, the Prophet called him and said: O such a person, what prevented you to pray Jumma with me today. He said: O Prophet of God, I prayed with you. The Prophet said: Have I not found you to cross over the necks of men? He hinted by this that his action has become void. In another narration, the Prophet said to him: What prevented you to pray with me? He said: O Prophet of God, have you not seen me? The Prophet said: I have seen you coming late and giving trouble to the people present. In other words you have delayed to come at dawn and have given trouble to those present.

 

7. Don’t go to the mosque by the front of a praying man, keep wall or pillar or stick in front when praying so that the people may not pass by your front. The Prophet said: His waiting for 40 years is better than his going by the front of men. The Prophet said: It is better for any man to be powdered to earth to be blown off by air like refuges than to cross the front of a praying man.

 

8. Try to take seat in the first row. There is a Hadith: If a man takes bath and tells another to take bath, if a man rises early and makes another awake early and goes near the Imam and hears, the sins which he has committed between two Jumma and additional three days become expiration for him.

 

9. Voluntarily prayers should be stopped at the time when the Imam gets upon the pulpit.

 

10. Follow the Imam in Jumma. When the jumma is finished, recite before talk the chapters ‘Fatiha’ seven times, ‘Ikhlas’ seven times., ‘Falaq’ seven times and ‘Nas’ seven times. A certain sage said: He who does this remains safe, up to the next Jumma from the devil.

 

SOURCE: IHYAA ULUM ADDEEN (REVIVAL OF RELIGIOUS SCIENCES). IMAM AL-GHAZALI