In my last article on Friday congregational prayer in this series, we have noticed Muhammad’s struggle to maintain influence and power over all of his followers. To achieve that he initially forced his followers to say all the five daily prayers at his mosque under his imam-ship. But as he took up arms to engage in jihad wars for subjugate the kafir communities of Arabia, the Muslim community spread far and wide. Under these circumstances, forcing all of his followers, especially those living far away from his house in Medina, to come his mosque for every prayer became impossible. He, therefore, established the once-in-a-week compulsory Friday prayer, the jumaa, to be performed in congregation at his mosque.
In continuation on the same topic, let us study the norms Muhammad set for Friday prayers with the sanctification of Allah, and the essence of Muhammad’s khutba sermon. We will also investigate how Muhammad used the weekly Friday prayer occasion to motivate his followers to wage Jihad attacks on non-Muslims in the name of Islam.
