Bismillahi Al-Rahmani Al-Rahim
Praying Zuhr Salah After Jumu`ah
Q
I have noticed Shafi'is in the west pray salat al-duhr after the
jumuah salat. Why exactly is this? I looked at the Relience of the
Traveller but did not see any relating to this.
What is the Hanbali opinion concerning this?
A
This is nothing confined to the West: it's something you find some
people doing here in Damascus as well. The Shafi`is have strict rules
regarding praying more than one Jumu`ah prayer in a given area. Unless
there is a justifiable reason for having more than one Jumu`ah, everyone
who did not pray in whichever Jumu`ah complete first will need to make up
their prayer. One of the reasons justifying more than one Jumu`ah is when
one mosque is not capable of containing everyone, in which case it is
permissible to have as many Jumu`ah are necessary to encompass the numbers.
But what do we use for determining the number of people the mosques need to
accommodate? One opinion--and it is not the strongest--is that it should be
determined by the number of all men and women, whether or not they
attend.
The Hanbali's also have conditions regarding multiple Jumu`ah, but there
is much much more leeway in what constitutes valid excuses for having more
than one. With the Hanbalis the number of people praying and distance
between mosques are factors. So is community solidarity: if having two
means that there will be less commotion and upset, then two are fine.
Both schools have evidence and convincing arguments for their positions.
What I have presented here is quite general.
wa al-salamu `alaykum
--musa