A Group of Jinns meet Prophet Muhammad

It is stated by Imam Baihaqi in "Dalail-e-Nubuwwat" on the authority
of Hadhrat Abdullah ibn Masood (ra) that the Prophet (saw) once, said
to his companions in Makkah:"Whosoever from amongst you desires to see
the jinns, he should come to me tonight." Hadhrat Abdullah ibn Masood
stated that nobody except me came that night. The Prophet (saw) took
me with him to a high hill in Makkah. He drew a circle with his foot
for me and advised me to keep sitting within that circle. Seating
Hadhrat Abdullah ibn Masood within that circle, he advanced ahead and
then stood at a place. There, he started recitation of the Holy Quran.
All of a sudden a big group of jinns encircled the Prophet (saw) and
that group stood as a wall between me and the Prophet (saw)and I heard
the jinns saying: "Who gives evidence that you are the Prophet." There
was a tree nearby. The Prophet (saw) observed: "Will you accept my
claim if this tree gives the evidence?" The jinns said: "Yes, we shall
accept it." On that, the Prophet (saw) called the tree. The tree came
nearby and gave the evidence accordingly and all the jinns embraced
Islam.

2b] Is there a Sunnah prayer before Jumua‘ah?

there was only this adhaan immediately before the khutbah, and that is
the Maaliki madhhab until the present day.
If you were to say: perhaps he (blessings and peace of Allah be upon
him) offered the Sunnah prayer in his house after the sun passed the
zenith,then he came out? I would say: If he did that, his wives (may
Allah be pleased with them) wouldhave narrated it from himas they
narrated all other prayer s that he did in his house by night and by
day, and the way in whichhe prayed tahajjud and qiyaam al-layl. As no
such thing as been narrated, the basic principle is that it did not
happen and thatit was not prescribed. End quote.
This issue was discussed further and at length by Imam al-Haafiz Abu
Shaamah (may Allah have mercy on him). See: al-Baa'ith 'ala Inkaar
al-Bida' wa'l-Hawaadith, p. 96 ff.
To sum up: There is no regular Sunnah prayer prescribed before
Jumu'ah; rather what is prescribed is to offer whatever voluntary
prayers one wants, from the time one enters the mosque until the imam
ascends the minbar.
And Allah knows best.
:-* key word:- Voluntary Prayers

2a] Is there a Sunnah prayer before Jumua‘ah?

2a] See: Minah al-'Allaam Sharh Buloogh al-Muraam,1/162
See also: al-Ajwibah an-Naafi'ah by Shaykh al-Albaani (may Allah have
mercy on him), 59-70
Imam Abu Shaamah discussed these two issues: that there is no regular
Sunnah prayer before Jumu'ah and that itis prescribed to offer
voluntary prayers before Jumu'ah prayer until the imam comes out.
He (may Allah have mercyon him) said:
Chapter on innovations of Jumu'ah
People usually pray between the two adhaanson Friday, offering naafil
prayers of two or four rak'ahs, and so on, until the imam comes out.
Thatis permissible and it is nota problem from the point of view of it
being prayer. Rather the problem is what the common folk and most of
those who think of themselves as knowledgeable believe, that it is a
Sunnah prayer before Jumu'ah, as they pray Sunnah before Zuhr, and
they declare their intention that it is the Sunnah of Jumu'ah, and
offer their own reasoning for this view, based on the idea that if we
say that Jumu'ah is a shortened form of Zuhr, then it has the same as
Zuhr (Sunnah prayers before and after, and so on).
None of that is based on aproper examination of theissue. There is no
Sunnah before Jumu'ah, like 'Isha' and Maghrib, and also like'Asr
according to one opinion, which is the correct opinion according to
some of them. It is a prayer that is like no other, with its own
merits.
The evidence that there is no Sunnah before it is that what is meant
when we describe a prayer as being "Sunnah" is that it is based on
words or actions narrated from the Messenger of Allah (blessings and
peace of Allah be upon him). There is no report from the Prophet
(blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) to indicate that the prayer
before Jumu'ah is Sunnah, and it is possible to draw an analogy
between prayers.
However, when it comes to praying after Jumu'ah, it is narrated in
as-Saheehthat the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him)
used to pray two rak'ahs after Jumu'ah. [Narrated by al-Bukhaari (937)
and Muslim (882) from the hadeeth of Ibn 'Umar] andthat he said:
"Whoever among you wants to prayafter Jumu'ah, let him pray four
(rak'ahs) Narrated by Muslim (881).Abu 'Eesa at-Tirmidhi said:It was
narrated from 'Ali ibn Abi Taalib (may Allah be pleased with him) that
he instructed people to pray two rak'ahs then four after Jumu'ah.
'Ata' said: I saw Ibn 'Umar praying two rak'ahs after Jumu'ah, then he
prayed four after that.
If you say: at-Tirmidhi also narrated from Ibn Mas'ood (may Allah be
pleased with him) that he used to pray four rak'ahs before Jumu'ah and
four afterwards, and this was the view of an-Nawawi and Ibn
al-Mubaarak, so this indicates that there is a Sunnah prayer before it
of four rak'ahs, as is also the case with Zuhr,
My response is: what is meant by 'Abdullah ibn Mas'ood praying four
rak'ahs before Jumu'ah is that he used to do that voluntarily until
the imamcame out, as we have mentioned above. How do you know that he
believed that it was the Sunnah prayer of Jumu'ah?
More than that was narrated from others among the Sahaabah (may Allah
be pleased with them). Abu Bakr ibn al-Mundhir said: We narrated from
Ibn 'Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) that he used to pray twelve
rak'ahs before Jumu'ah. It was narrated from Ibn 'Abbaas(may Allah be
pleased with him) that he used to pray eight rak'ahs. This indicates
that they did this as something voluntary on their own initiative,
without any instructions from the Prophet (blessings and peace of
Allah be upon him), hence the variation in the numbers (of rak'ahs)
narrated from them. The matter of voluntary prayers is broad in scope.
And perhaps they did that, or most of it, before the adhaan and the
onset of the time for Jumu'ah, because they used to come early and
pray until the imam came out.
They used to do something similar in the case of Eid prayer, and it
isdefinitively known that there is no Sunnah prayer connected to the
Eid prayer. They used to pray after the sun had risen high, either in
the musalla(prayer place) or in their houses, then they would offer
the Eid prayer. That was narrated from a number of the Sahaabah and
Taabi'een, and al-Haafiz al-Bayhaqi devoted a chapter to that in his
Sunan.
Moreover the evidence that this is correct is the fact that the
Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) used to come out of
his house on Friday and ascend his minbar, then the mu'adhdhin would
give the call to prayer, and when he had finished the Prophet would
start his khutbah. If there were any Sunnah prayer before Jumu'ah, he
would have told them to pray Sunnah after the adhaan and he would have
done it himself. At the time of theProphet (blessings and peace of
Allah be upon him), there was only this adhaan immediately before the
khutbah, :->
:-* key word:- Voluntary Prayers

2] Is there a Sunnah prayer before Jumua‘ah?

2]
We know from the saheeh hadeeths that there are four rak'ahs before
Zuhr. How should we do these rak'ahs on Friday? It is known that there
are no Sunnah prayers before Jumu'ah, but for a person who has the
habit of praying thesefour rak'ahs, is it acceptable for him to do
them on Friday? Is it acceptable for him to praythem before the sun
passes the zenith?.
Praise be to Allaah.
Firstly:
There is no proven report from the Prophet (blessings and peace of
Allah be upon him) that he prescribed a regular Sunnah (Sunnah
raatibah) prayer to be offered before it, and there is no proven
report from any ofthe Companions of the Prophet (blessings and peace
of Allah be upon him) that they prayed anyregular Sunnah prayer before
Jumu'ah like the regular Sunnah prayer of Zuhr or any other prayer.
It is not valid to pray the regular Sunnah prayer of Zuhr on Friday,
because Jumu'ah is not Zuhr; rather it is a prayer with its own
rulings. So it is notZuhr and it is not valid either to compare it to
Zuhr in that regard.
See the answer to question no. 114765
With regard to the report which says that Ibn Mas'ood (may Allah be
pleased with him) used topray four rak'ahs before Jumu'ah and four
afterwards, it was narrated by at-Tirmidhi ina mu'allaqan which he
narrated in a way that indicates that it is weak; itis also mawqoof,
with a isnaad that ends with Ibn Mas'ood. The commentator on
at-Tirmidhi narrated from al-Haafiz Ibn Hajar (may Allah have mercy on
him) that 'Abd ar-Razzaaq and at-Tabaraani narrated it ina marfoo'
report, but its isnaad has some weakness and interruptions, and a
report that is like this cannot be quoted as evidence.
See: Fataawa al-Lajnah ad-Daa'imah, 8/261
Shaykh al-Albaani (may Allah have mercy on him) said: (It is) munkar,
as it says in as-Silsilah ad-Da'eefah, 3/83
Secondly:
It is mustahabb for the one who comes to Jumu'ah to offer voluntary
prayers beforehand, whatever he is able to do, from when he enters the
mosque until the imam comes out to the people, without that being
limited to a specific number. So he may pray two or four rak'ahs, or
whatever Allahwills that he should pray.
Al-Bukhaari (883) and Muslim (657) narrated that Salmaan al-Faarisi
said: The Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said:
"Whoever does ghusl on Friday, purifies himself as much as he can,
uses (hair) oil or perfumes himself with the perfume of his house,
then goes out (for the Jumu'ah prayer) and does not separate between
two (persons sitting together in the mosque), then prays as much as is
decreed for him, then remains silent whilst the imam is speaking, his
sins between the present and the last Friday will be forgiven for
him."
Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allah have mercy on him) said, discussing matters
that are specific to Friday:
It is not makrooh to pray on Friday at the time of the zenith,
according to ash-Shaafa'i (may Allah have mercy on him) and those who
agreed with him. This is the view favoured by our shaykh,
Abu'l-'Abbaas ibn Taymiyah, and he did not base his view on the
hadeeth of Layth from Mujaahid from Abu'l-Khaleel from Abu Qataadah
from the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him), which
states that it is makrooh to pray at midday except on Friday, and he
said: "Hell flares up (at noon) except on Friday". Rather he based his
view on a report which states that whoever comes to Jumu'ah, it is
mustahabb for him to pray until the imam comes out.
He quoted the hadeeth of Salmaan mentioned above, then he said: The
report recommends praying as much as is decreed for one, and not
stopping until the time when the imam comes out.
Hence more than one of the salaf, including 'Umar ibn al-Khattaab (may
Allah be pleased with him), who was followed in that by Imam Ahmad ibn
Hanbal, said that the appearance of the imam prevents prayer and his
khutbah prevents speaking. They said that the factor which prevents
prayer is the appearance of the imam, not the mid-point of the day
(noon).
Moreover, if the people are inside the mosque, beneath the roof, and
they cannot tell when the zenith occurs, and a man is focusing on his
prayer, he does not know when the zenith occurs and he cannot go out,
stepping over people's necks to look at the sun and come back, and it
is not prescribed for him to do that. End quote from Zaadal-Ma'aad,
1/365
Ash-Shawkaani also regarded this view as being more correct and
henoted that the hadeeth ofSalmaan mentioned above makes an exception
to the general meaning of the hadeeths that forbid praying at the time
of the zenith. See Nayl al-Awtaar, 3/313
This view was also favoured by Shaykh Saalihal-Fawzaan (may Allah
preserve him) and he quoted as evidence for it something similar to
what was narrated from Ibn al-Qayyim. :->
:-* key word:- Voluntary Prayers