Good Manners That Must Be Observed On Friday 

Hazrat Muhammad ‘alaihis-sallam’, stated: “Friday is a hajj(pilgrimage) for the poor, an ’Iyd Day for Believers, and an ’Iyd Day for celestial beings, and also an ’Iyd Day in Paradise. Friday is the best and the most honourable one of all days.” Another hadîth-i-sherîf reads: “Friday is a treasure of goodnesses and a source of beautiful things.” Another hadîth-i sherîf quotes Mûsâ ‘’alaihis-salâm’ as having supplicated: “O my Rabb(Allah)! You have given me Saturday. What day are you going to give the Ummat of Muhammad ‘’alaihis salâm’?” Haqq ta’âlâ declared: “I shall give them Friday.” “Ilâhî! How much value is in  Friday, and how much thawâb does it carry?” “O Mûsâ! An act of worship performed on Friday will bring as much thawâb as will be given for a hundred thousand acts of worship performed on Saturday.” Thereupon Mûsâ ‘’alaihis-salâm’ invoked: “O my Rabb! Please make me one of the Ummat of Muhammad ‘’alaihissalâm’!” When Jebrâ’îl ‘’alaihis-salâm’ brought the âyat-i-kerîma of the Qur’ân al-kerîm giving information about Friday, the blessed Archangel stated: “O Muhammad ‘’alaihis-salâm’! If the Ummat of Mûsâ ‘’alaihis-salâm had known the value of Friday, they would have been safe against worshipping the (so-called) calf and becoming Jews. And if the Ummat of ’Îsâ (Jesus) ‘’alaihissalâm’ had known it, they would have been safe against becoming Christians.” The final part of the twenty-first (21) chapter of the fourth fascicle of Endless Bliss provides detailed explanations of hadîth-i-sherîfs about the virtues of Friday.

A hadîth-i-sherîf reads: “If a Believer rejoices at the arrival of Friday, they will be given the same number of thawâbs daily till the day of Rising; so many are the thawâbs they are to be given that Allâhu ta’âlâ, alone, knows their number.” Another hadîth-i-sherîf reads: “Believers who die on Friday will be given thawâb equal to that of Martyrs, and it will protect them against torment in their grave.” A hadîth-i-sherîf quoted in the hundred and twenty-third (123) page of the book entitled Terghîb-us-salât reads: “If a Believer says, ‘Estaghfirullah al’adhîm al-ledhî lâ ilâha illâ Huw-alHayy-al-Qayyûma wa atûbu ileyh,’ three times before morning salaat(prayer) on Friday, all their sins and their parents’ sins will be forgiven.”

There are twenty acts of sunnat and adab that must be observed on Friday. People who love Muhammad Rasûlullah ‘sallAllâhu ’alaihi wa sallam’ ought to practise these acts:

1– Friday must be met by Thursday. For instance, new and clean clothes must be prepared, works must be gotten done, so that Friday can be spent doing worship. Time after late afternoon on Thursday must be spent making tesbîh and istighfâr. A (conjugal act followed by a) ghusl is recommended for a married couple during the night previous to Friday. Both the husband and the wife will be rewarded with as much thawâb as if they manumitted a slave.

2– On Friday, a ghusl must be made for the Friday prayer. Greatness of the number of the hadîth-i-sherîfs commending that ghusl has prompted some Islamic scholars to argue that it is an act that is farz to perform.

3– A haircut must be had. Beard in excess of one handful must be cut off, fingernails must be trimmed, and white clothes must be worn. [It is written in Berîqa that it is bid’at and gravely sinful to have a beard shorter than a handful.]

According to most Islamic scholars, it is an act of sunnat to grow a beard. The book entitled Muslim, one of the two valuable books of Sunnat called Sahîhayn, quotes the following hadîth-i sherîf on the authority of Hadrat ’Âisha ‘radiy-Allâhu ’anhâ’: “Ten things are required by fitrat: To trim ones moustache; to grow a beard; (to use) a miswâk, mazmaza, (i.e. to rinse one’s mouth with water;) istinshâq, (i.e. to snuff up water through one’s nostrils;) to trim one’s nails; to wash between one’s fingers and toes; to shave one’s armpits and groin and; to clean one’s genitals and (only for men) to make istibrâ after urination.” This hadîth-i-sherîf is quoted also in the book entitled Bahr-ur-râiq, written by Ibni Nujaym ‘rahimahullâhu ta’âlâ’, and in the book Tabyîn-ul-haqâiq, written by Imâm Zeylâ’î ‘rahimahullâhu ta’âlâ’, in their chapters dealing with the fards of a ghusl; it is explained in the two books that the word ‘fitrat’ means ‘sunnat’. As is clearly stated in this hadîth-i-sherîf, growing a beard is an act of sunnat shared by the other Prophets as well, that it is not a characteristic belonging only to the dispensation of Muhammad ‘’alaihis-salâm’, and that it is therefore (within a category of sunnat termed) a sunnat-i-zewâid. These acts of sunnat are written also in the book entitled Shir’atul-islâm. There are various styles of beard. A Jewish beard, a Christian beard, a Shiite beard, a Wahhâbite beard, a Communist beard, and an Islamic beard are a few of them. An Islamic beard is the only one that is an act of sunnat to grow. This kind of beard is the one that covers the entire face and which is a small handful long, (i.e. that which can be grasped by four fingers.) To grow a beard that is not so is not an act of sunnat; it is an act of bid’at. Muhammad Hâdimî ‘rahimahullâhu ta’âlâ’ states as follows in his book entitled Berîqa: “A hadîth-i-sherîf reads: ‘Make your moustache short and your beard long.’ Therefore, it was interdicted to shave your beard or to trim it so as to make it shorter than the length dictated by the Sunnat. It is sunnat to grow a beard until it becomes a small handful long. It is not permissible to have a beard shorter than the length of a small handful, (i.e. the sum of the widths of four fingers.) And it is an act of sunnat to cut off its excess of a small handful.” A small handful is equal to the total sum of the widths of four fingers, beginning from the point where it appears on the skin surface of the chin. When the Sultân, (e.g. the State,) orders something that has already been advised by the Sunnat, be it merely something permitted by Islam, (i.e. something that is mubâh,) it becomes wâjib to (obey that command and) do it. Its being practised by the Sultân and by all the people means a commandment (by the Sultân). At such places it is wâjib to grow a beard until it becomes a small handful long. And it means to disobey the (Islamic commandment called) wâjib to make it
shorter than a small handful or to shave it off. Disobedience of such gravity is called ‘makrûh tahrîmî’. And it is not permissible for a person with so grave an offense to serve as an îmân in a mosque (and to conduct salaats in jamâ’at). At places devoid of the aforesaid favourable conditions, lest you should suffer persecution in the Dâr-ul-harb or get deprived of your means of subsistence or in order that you can perform emr-i-ma’rûf, serve
Muslims and Islam and/or guard your chastity, it becomes permissible, and even necessary, to shave your beard, but then it is still not permissible to trim your beard (so as to make it shorter than a small handful). And it is an act of makrûh to shave your beard without an ’udhr, (i.e. a good reason prescribed by Islam.) In fact, it is an act of bid’at to grow a beard shorter than a small handful with the belief that you are thereby performing an act of
sunnat. It would mean to change a sunnat. Committing an act of bid’at is a sin graver than homicide. If you have a beard as short as that, it will be wâjib to grow it until it attains the length of a handful. Ibni ’Âbidîn ‘rahimahullâhu ta’âlâ’ states as follows as he deals with the acts of makrûh committed during the performance
of a salaat: “If you would have to commit an act of makrûh in your effort to perform an act of sunnat muakkad, then you had better omit that sunnat and not do it at all. In case you doubt whether it would be sunnat or bid’at to do a certain act, then you should omit it and not do it at all.” It is an act of makrûh to grow a beard only for the sake of formality. It is permissible to shave a beard in order to avoid a fitna. However, it is bid’at to believe that you would be performing an act of sunnat by having a shorter beard. In both cases you would have to shave your beard.

4– You should go (to the mosque) as early as possible for the Friday salaat. The early Muslims would be in the mosque as it was still dark for the purpose of attaining plenty of thawâb.

5– You should not stride over the shoulders of the (Muslims making up the) jamâ’at for the purpose of attaining the front line.

6– You should make a detour around a wall or a pillar, rather than just walk by before a Muslim performing salaat.

7– You should find a space in the front line by arriving early.

8– Once the Khatîb[Muslim in charge of making the (prescribed Friday sermon termed) Khutba.] has climbed the minbar, you should never utter any words or even repeat the Adhân (Azân) being performed. Nor should you reply a person talking, not even through signs. As it is harâm for the Khatîb also to talk or or uter words other than words prescribed for the Khutba, Doing sowould cause the Khutba to become fâsid (null and void), which in
turn would nullify the entire Friday salaat. Our Prophet ‘sallAllâhu ’alaihi wa sallam’ stated: “Khutba means a salaat of two rak’ats.” It is sunnat to make the Khutba short. It is makrûh to
make it long. It is a symptom of (being in the true Madhhab called) Ahl as-sunnat to utter the names of the (earliest) four Khalîfas loudly during the Khutba. A khatîb who declines to do so should be kept away from.

9– After the salaat the Sûras called Fâtiha, Kâfirûn, Ikhlâs, Felaq and Nâss should be said, seven times each.

10– You should stay in the mosque performing acts of worship until late afternoon.

11– You should attend lectures delivered by pious Islamic scholars who base their lessons on books written by scholars of Ahl as-sunnat ‘rahimahumullâhu ta’âlâ’. An hour’s stay in such a pious class is more fruitful than a thousand rak’ats of nâfila (supererogatory) salaat.

12– You should spend the entire Friday doing worship so that you can come across the (promised) moment on Friday whereat prayers shall be accepted (by Allâhu ta’âlâ).

13– You should say the (special prayer termed) Salawât-isherîfa very often on Friday.

14– You should read (or recite) (passages from) the Qur’ân alkerîm and (especially) the Sûra called Kahf (or Kehf).

15– You should give alms, as much as you could afford.

16– You should visit your parents, or their graves and graves of Sâlih Muslims and Awliyâ. You should collect fayz from the souls of the Awliyâ.

17– You should provide plentiful and sweet food for your family and children.

18– You should perform plenty of salaats; these salaats should be performed as qadâ salaats by people who have debts of salaats (on account of the farz salaats that they did not perform within their stated times), and those who do not have debts of salaat should perform them as nâfila salaats.

19– Friday should be dedicated to activities pertaining to worship.

20– After the late afternoon prayer, you should, to the best of your ability, sit on your prayer rug and say, “Yâ Allah, yâ Rahmân, yâ Rahîm, yâ Qawî, yâ Qadîr,” and thereafter offer your benedictions.

– On Friday wear your lovely and new clothes! If you do not have new clothes, then wear clean clothes. Wind your turban standing, rather than sitting! Spray on a (proper) perfume and go out for Friday Salaat. For, angels like pleasant odours. Pleasant odours are sunnat for men; however, it is harâm for women to ornament themselves or to expose their heads and/or their arms as they go out. For, perfumes on women or their exposed heads and arms will attract men. They can use jewels and perfumes only indoors. As you walk on your way to the mosque for the Friday Salaat, make tesbîh and dhikr! You will be given ten thawâbs for each and every step you take.

– If possible, go to the mosque after making a ghusl, go there early for the salaat, and sit somewhere close enough (to the minber) to hear the Khutba. Do not talk with anybody as the Khutba is being performed! Do not look or turn right or left! For, talking during the performance of the Khutba is a sin that will deprive you of the virtues inherent in Friday. When you enter the mosque, sit at an occupied place, instead of jostling your way at the cost of annoying the (Muslims in the) jamâ’at! (Be early enough to) get your place in one of the front lines! If you are late, do not annoy others by pushing your way through the jamâ’at. It is not farz for a Muslim too old or too unhealthy to walk to perform Friday Prayer.