Salaam, I have a problem regarding salaatul-jumu'ah. My local masjid prays the salaatul-jumu'ah at around 1:35-1:40pm and finish around 1:50pm because they think that 'Asr starts at approximately 2:10. However, this masjid is wrong in their prayer times owing to where they get their information. All other mainstream masaajid start Asr at 1:40. I have no other way to pray in any other mosques and this is the only one. So to be on the safe side, should I pray 4 raka'ah dhuhr before the jumu'ah just to make sure? Jazaakallaahu Khayran

All perfect praise be to Allaah, the Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His Slave and Messenger.

First of all, it should be mentioned that the time of Jumu’ah (Friday prayer) is the time of Thuhr and it is not permissible to delay it after the time of Thuhr. An-Nawawi wrote in his book Al-Majmoo’: “…As for their views regarding the Jumu’ah prayer, if the time of Thuhr has expired while they are still performing the Jumu’ah prayer, then we have stated that the opinion which we adopt is that the Jumu’ah has been missed and they should complete it as Thuhr, and Abu Haneefah said: the Jumu’ah becomes void and they should restart it as Thuhr, while ‘Ataa’ said: “He (the Imaam) should complete it as Jumu’ah”, and Imaam Ahmad said: “If he (the Imaam) had already prayed one Rak’ah, he should complete it as Jumu’ah, but if he had prayed less than one Rak’ah, he should complete it as Thuhr.”

However, the Maaliki School of jurisprudence is of the view that Jumu’ah is valid at the time of ‘Asr, but one is sinful for delaying it if there is no sound reason for delaying it. Mawaahib Al-Jaleel, which is one of the books of the Maaliki School, reads about delaying the time of Jumu’ah until the time of ‘Asr: “(Note), this ruling applies if the Imaam and the people delay the prayer for a sound reason or that this coincided without a sound reason, but in principle this is not permissible; Al-Mudawwanah reads: “If the Imaam (the ruler) delays the prayer to a time which people deny, then they should perform the Jumu’ah prayer without him if they are able to do so, otherwise they would pray Thuhr and then pray with him as supererogatory prayer. Sanad said: he wants to say if he [the Imaam] delays the Jumu’ah until the time of ‘Asr. That is because the time of Jumu’ah is the time of Thuhr, and so the Thuhr is dropped and its time starts at the time when the sun is at its meridian, so since it is not permissible to delay Thuhr beyond its time, it is likewise not permissible to delay the Jumu’ah beyond its time.”

As regards the time of ‘Asr when it is not permissible to delay the Jumu’ah to its [‘Asr] time, then the Fiqh Encyclopedia defined its starting time as follows: “The majority of the jurists (the Maaliki, Shaafi’i, Hanbali and the two companions of Abu Haneefah [i.e. Abu Yoosuf and Muhammad ibn Al-Hasan) are of the view that the beginning of the time of ‘Asr is when the shade of an item is as long as its length other than its shadow when the sun is at its meridian. This is a narration from Abu Haneefah as well….But the well-known opinion of Abu Haneefah is that the beginning of the time of ‘Asr is when the shadow of everything is twice its length other than its shadow when the sun is at its meridian.”

However, it might be that the people in the mosque where you pray Jumu’ah where they delay the prayer until 1:50, follow the Hanafi School that ‘Asr begins when the shadow of the item is twice its length. In any case, what we can say is that if it appears to you according to Islamic indications for the two prayers – the Thuhr and ‘Asr – that the mosque where you pray Jumu’ah delays it until after the time of ‘Asr has begun according to the explanation which we have mentioned, then it is not permissible for you to delay the prayer until you pray with them; rather, it becomes an obligation upon you to pray Jumu’ah in another mosque where Jumu’ah is performed at its time, even if the mosque is far from your dwelling place, because you are obliged to take the initiative to perform it as long as this mosque is in the same town. If there is no mosque in your town where the Friday prayer is performed at its time, then you should pray Thuhr at its time and you are not required to pray the Friday prayer.

To sum up, if the Friday prayer ends at that mosque before the beginning of the time of ‘Asr according to some scholars of the Hanafi School and after its beginning according to the view of the majority of the scholars, then it is better for you in order to be on the safe side that you pray in another mosque and you should not delay the Friday prayer until that time unless you are imitating (following) the Hanafi School of jurisprudence.

Allaah Knows best.