Friday, 13 August 2021

Friday Prayer

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

The Qur'aanic Verse 62:9 (و اذا ندى للصلاة من يوم الجمعة ٠٠٠) stipulates that when the call for the Friday prayer is given, the believers should abandon worldly business and hasten towards meditation on Allah. And the next Verse tells them that this restriction ends at the completion of the Friday prayer. So, the duration of the restriction is only about an hour! Such restriction, on the other hand, was extended to an entire day - Sabbath - for the Jews. We, Muslims, ought to be thankful to Allah Almighty for this concession!

But what do we do? We try our best to get over this little restriction even, in dubious ways. Some of us say that the أذان (call for prayer) with which the restriction starts is not the first, but the second one given just before the ritual congregational prayer starts. The ritual prayer lasts for less than 10 minutes. So, the duration of the restriction would be 10 minutes at the most!

This is just nonsense! The 2nd اذان is given when the people are already engaged in ذكر الله at the places of prayer! They are not engaged in their worldly affairs then. It is the first اذان that the Verses mentioned above refer to. At the first اذان most people are indeed engaged in their worldly affairs. The اذان serves as a notice to them to abandon those affairs and prepare themselves for ذكر الله.

This divine restriction is for all believers, both male, and female. But the females, particularly those in the Indian subcontinent, consider themselves exempted. They remain engaged in their household activities during this restricted time!

When Muslims are so openly unmindful about divine instructions to them, why would Allah Almighty care for them? They have consequently become the favourite whipping boys for any Tom, Dick, or Harry of this world, today!

Mohammad Shafi 
Friday, the 13th of August 2021.

 

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