In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful. Brothers and sisters, Assalamu Alaikum (Peace be upon you). The Friday Congregational Prayer is an obligatory duty upon every Muslim man and woman. This is a social function decreed by God Almighty for the Muslims to get together and to know each other and to be familiar with their problems and their joys.

And we find in surah number 62 verse number 9 the commandment from God says,

So if anyone is afraid that he or she may lose some business during the Friday prayer, God is saying this would be better for you, God will make it up to you. God runs the world and he’s the only provider and he guarantees you doing better if you go to the Friday prayer. And notice that the commandment said, “O you who believe.” It didn’t say, “O you believing men or O you believing women.” It says, “O you who believe, when the contact prayer on Friday is called for, you shall go and drop all business”. It is very important; I’m emphasizing the role of the women because this is also an educational meeting where people sit down and listen to a sermon and the Muslim woman must be the best educated because she teaches the children. The women are our mothers, and they teach us as we grow up and it is essential that they are educated not ignorant. The traditional customary Muslims of the Middle East kept the women away from the mosque and this kept the children ignorant because the mothers are ignorant as far as the religion is concerned. So, it is very important to emphasize this fact that Muslim men and women are required, it is an obligatory duty for them to go for the Friday prayer.

Features and conditions of the Friday Congregational Prayer

There are certain conditions for the Friday Prayer: The people dress nicely, as commanded in the Quran, and they go for the noon prayer on Friday to the mosque, and the imam, or the person who gives the sermon, is required to follow certain traditions. These are religious traditions or duties that came to us all the way from Abraham. And it is universal. This is the way it is happening all over the world.

• The first condition is that throughout the prayer, from the beginning to the end, you mention only the name of God. Allah Subhanahu wa Ta’ala (God, Glory to Him, and Exalted He is).
• The adhan should be Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, La Elaha Ella Allah (God is Great 4x, There is no god but God). This is Adhan. So, the Adhan, or the call for contact prayer is delivered,
• Then the Imam stands up in front of the congregation and he starts the first sermon by saying Alhamdulillah (Praise God). This is the first requirement. The Khutba or Sermon on Friday consists of two sections or two sermons. The prayer itself consists of two Rak’ahs instead of four. The customary noon prayer consists of four Rak’ahs or four units, but on Friday it is only two Rak’ahs or two units, and this is because the two sermons compensate for two Rak’ats or two units. So, the first sermon and also the second sermon, they must begin by stating Alhamdulillah, (Praise be to God), followed by the Shahada. And the Shahada as dictated in the Quran, in surah 3 verse 81, is: “La Elaha Illa Allah” (There is no god but God), that’s it. So, the Imam stands up and he begins each sermon, the first one and the second one, by saying Alhamdulillah, La Elaha Ella Allah.
• Then he goes into the sermon, the subject, in any language that he wishes. Of course, in this country, in the United States, it will be English, so the people will understand.
• If the imam during the sermon uses Quran in Arabic, he must translate it, so the people will understand. This is the whole idea of a sermon.
• The sermon also deals with the local conditions of the local community. Or it can deal with a general lesson from the Quran or a general religious lesson.

So let me write for you the first requirement, which is stating, Alhamdulillah, La Elaha Ella Allah, at the beginning of each sermon.

The Imam stands up for the sermon and the first thing he says in the first sermon and the second sermon is, Alhamdulillah. Which means, Praise be to God.

La Elaha Ella Allah. “La” means no. “Elaha” means god. “Ella” means except, “Allah” means God. La Elaha Ella Allah. There is no god except Allah. This is the required utterance at the beginning of the first sermon and the second sermon. After this you go into the subject of your sermon.

Now you notice I didn’t say anything else. This is what you start with. Alhamdulillah, La Elaha Ella Allah. You don’t start with Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim, or dear brothers and sisters, or Assalamu Alaikum, or anything else. The minute you stand up for the sermon, you say Alhamdulillah, La Elaha Ella Allah. Then you can say, dear brothers and sisters, Assalamu Alaikum, I want to talk to you today about the contact prayers, the salat, for example, or whatever your subject is.

Repentance + Ending the Sermon

After you finish the subject of the first sermon, how do you finish the first sermon? You finish it by asking the people to repent. You can ask them in Arabic and then translate it to English. And the Arabic is, “Tooboo Ela Allah”, repent. This is how you end the first sermon.

Now, as soon as you say “Tooboo Ila Allah”, repent, you sit down, and you repent yourself. You sit down and you pray to God, please God forgive me, I repent to you, I will never commit a sin after now. And you mean it. So here is how you end the first sermon.

1. You finish your subject,
2. Then you say to the people, Tooboo Ila Allah, repent.
3. And then you sit down, and you ask God to forgive you and you declare your repentance.

You say, “please God forgive me, I repent, I will never commit a sin after now.” And you mean it. Of course you are going to fall in sin again. But God says he loves those who continuously repent. So, you sit down for about a minute, no more, just one minute, and everybody in the mosque will be asking God for forgiveness, and everyone in the mosque will be repenting,

1. Then you stand up for the second sermon. And you start the second sermon by, Alhamdulillah, La Elaha Ella Allah. This is how you start the second sermon. Exactly the same way as the first sermon.
2. Then, you either continue the subject you were talking about in the first sermon, or you talk about a new subject. You can have two different subjects for the two sermons.
3. And after you finish talking in the second sermon, you end this last sermon by saying Aqem Al-Salah. And this is assigned to someone in the congregation to declare that the Salah, the contact prayer for Friday, is ready to be observed, and everybody stands up. You end the sermon by saying “Aqem Al-Salah.”

Now, the minute you say Aqem Al-Salah, the second sermon is over, and a person in the congregation will say Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, La Elaha Ella Allah. And this means everybody stand up and let us pray. Then as the imam who gave the two sermons, you stand up in front of the congregation and you pray two Rak’ahs as usual.

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Video tape consists of live examples of the Friday Sermon being conducted during the congregation

By: Rashad Khalifa, the Messenger of the Covenant

For more information:

Understanding the Friday Prayer

Can We Do Friday Sermons Online?

Principles of Muslim Prayer

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