Is the Salat on Friday a congregational Salat? Is it an extra Salat?
When should it be observed?
[62:9] O you who believe, when the call for the Salat is announced on Friday, you shall hasten to the commemoration of God and drop all business. This is better for you if you only knew.
[62:10] Once the Salat is completed, you shall spread out through the land and seek God's favour and remember God frequently so that you may succeed.
To analyse the Quranic input and reply to the above questions it is necessary to split the reply into three sections:
First:
Is the Salat on Friday congregational?
God always gives us key words in various verses whenever it is necessary to confirm a specific meaning. This is the case regarding the Salat mentioned in 62:9.
The purpose of this research is to present to the reader the three key words in 62:9-10 which answer the questions above.
In addition to the fact that the word Jummah means congregation, we come across the first key word which confirms that the Salat in 62:9 is a congregational Salat. The word is “intashiru” in 62:10. This words means “you shall spread out”:
[62:10] Once the Salat is completed, you shall spread out through the land and seek God's favour and remember God frequently so that you may succeed.
The words “spread out” implies that there is congregation or group of people then they disperse or spread out. A single person on his own cannot spread out.
Second:
Is the Salat in 62:9 an extra Salat, or one of the three Quranic Salat?
Once again, key words in 62:9 show us how accurate and meticulous God’s words are and how they always indicate a very specific meaning.
To demonstrate the key words related to this issue, let us first look at two ways of phrasing the key words:
1-
[62:9] O you who believe, when the call for the Friday Salat is announced, you shall hasten to the commemoration of God and drop all business. This is better for you if you only knew.
2-
[62:9] O you who believe, when the call for the Salat is announced on Friday, you shall hasten to the commemoration of God and drop all business. This is better for you if you only knew.
The words chosen by God are the second ones (shown in green). The reader will note that the words in the first phrasing (shown in red) would indicate that there is a Salat called the “Friday Salat” which is independent of the three Salat already authorised in the Quran (Fajr – Wusta – Isha).
However, we note that God is very careful to use the words (the Salat on Friday) as opposed to (the Friday Salat). This variation in phrasing may not seem significant, but in fact it is. As worded by God, the Salat spoken of in 62:9 is one of the already authorised Salat and the day referred to is Friday, i.e. it is one of the three Salat that are observed every day, and the subject here is Friday.
Third:
Which of the three Salat is the congregational Salat in 62:9?
Further key words confirm that the Salat mentioned in 62:9 is the Wusta Salat and not Fajr or Isha.
1- The words“drop all business”eliminate the Fajr Salat since no one is likely to be dropping work at the onset of the Fajr Salat.
2- The words“you shall spread out through the land and seek God's favour”eliminate the Isha Salat because these words invite people to return to their work seeking God’s favour. Once again and as a rule, this does not happen after the Isha Salat.
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To conclude, the Salat spoken of in 62:9 is a congregational Wusta Salat that is observed on Friday.
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