What is the reason why Friday is regarded as a blessed day?

- Why Friday and not other days?

Dear Brother / Sister,

The virtue of Friday can be seen in the following hadith:

“The most virtuous / superior of the days on which the sun rises is Friday because Adam was created on that day, placed in Paradise on that day and taken out of Paradise on that day.” (see Muslim, 854; Nasai, 3/89; Ibn Kathir, 1/2328)

Since Adam’s being taken out of Paradise means that he was placed on the earth and made the vicegerent of the earth, it is a great blessing in this respect.

In other words, Friday is a great feast day for human beings because it is the day when humanity was first created, placed in Paradise and made the vicegerent of the earth.

According to what is understood from various hadiths, Friday was determined as the day of weekly worship for Jews and Christians before but they fell into dispute about it and Jews adopted Saturday and Christians adopted Sunday for weekly meeting and worship. Allah enabled Muslims to have Friday as the day of weekly worship and to attain the truth regarding the issue. (Muslim, “Jumu’a”, 19-23)

Thus, Friday was chosen as the day of weekly worship in congregation and it is clearly stated in several narrations that it is a day of eid (feast). (Bayhaqi, Sunan, 3/243; Ibn Qayyim, Zadul-Maad, 1/369)

The Prophet (pbuh) expressed the specialty of that day with the hadith above. Allah stated that He would allow His slaves to visit Him in Paradise on “yawmul-mazid” corresponding to Friday in the world (Ibn Qayyim, I, 369-372, 408-410), and he informed us in another hadith that the prayers said at a certain time (time of answering) on Friday would be accepted.

Various views were put forward about the exact time of answering like the period from zawal time to the start of the Friday prayer, from imam’s ascending the pulpit to the start or end of the Friday prayer, from adhan to the end of Friday prayer, from dawn to sunrise and from the afternoon prayer to sunset. Based on the hadith of the Prophet “I knew it but I was made forget it afterwards like the night of Qadr (Power).” (Hakim, Mustadrak, 1/279), it is stated that the time of answering was kept a secret so that people would worship Allah all day on Friday like ism al-a’zam (the greatest name) of Allah being kept secret among His beautiful names and the night of Qadr (Power) being kept secret among the last ten days of Ramadan.

It is stated that the sins of a person who cleans himself on Friday, goes to mosque, listens to the sermon and performs Friday prayer between that Friday and the next Friday will be forgiven (Bukhari, Jumu’a 6, 19) and that the heart of a person who abandons Friday prayer (continuously) for three Fridays on account of slackness will be sealed. (Abu Dawud, Salah, 204)

When the day of Arafah is on Friday, hajj, which is the greatest congregational deed of worship that brings together Muslims from all around the world, is called “hajj al-akbar” (the greatest hajj).

Due to those properties, the following things are regarded as sunnah to do in addition to Friday prayer, which is fard, on Friday, which is very important as individuals and the community in terms of Muslims:

To make ghusl (it is fard according to some scholars), to shorten the mustache, to trim nails, to do other bodily cleaning, to clean teeth with a miswak or brush, to wear nice clothes, to go to the mosque early, to read the chapter of al-Kahf, to clean the mosque and to make it smell nice, to read the chapters of as-Sajdah and ad-Dahr in the morning prayer, to read the chapters of al-Jumua and al-Munafiqun or al-Ala and al-Ghashiya in Friday prayer, to say prayers and make dhikr a lot, to utter salawat for the Prophet.

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