Q. Is performing salah in the musjid before Jummah Bidah, haram or allowed but makrooh? Did Rasulullah (SAW) perform any salaah before Jumah khutba. Can we do it? Should we do it? Can Zohr salah analogy be used for sunnah of Jummah?

A. There would be no need to use the Zohr Salaah analogy upon the four rakats that is performed prior to the Jummah salaah. Jummah Salaah has its own set of proofs that function to aid itself. Imaam Tirmizi has outlined from Ibn Masood; Ibn Majah has also given recognition to the authenticity regarding the Hadith below:

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Rasulullah (sallallaahu alayhi wa sallam) used to perform four Rakats before Jummah

The above is viewed as sound, added to the above is the following:

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Saafiyah narrates that “I saw Safiyyah Binti Huyay (RA) performing four rakaats of salaah prior the Imaam coming out for jummah salaah , then performed two rakaats of jummah salaat with the Imaam” (Nasbur Al-Raayah, volume 2, page 207)

Thus, the habit of performing the four rakaats prior to jumah salaah was also the habit of the sahaba (may Allah be pleased with them all.) Should one not wish to do perform it, they are at liberty to do so, however, to impose such thinking would certainly be wrong.

The opponents of  four rakaats claim: The azan would be given, and thereafter Rasulullah (sallallaahu alayhi wa sallam) would give the khutba. This flimsy argument does not address that this sunnah before the Jummah was very well performed at the home of Rasulullah (sallallaahu alayhi wa sallam) prior to him (sallallaahu alayhi wa sallam) entering the field of Jummah. Had the above Hadith been a deception or not having any worthiness, Ibn Majah, Imaam Tirmizi, Ibn Abi Shayba, Abdur-Razzaq or for that matter, the great Shafee scholar Ibn al-Mulaqin would not have made mentioned of it with at times great detail in their works.

Yes, we agree it may not have been performed in the Musjid. No person can ever claim it was never performed.

Thus, we too should read it within the confinement of our homes. However, just as we don’t usually perform the other (nafl, etc.) salaah in our homes and make spectacle of it in the Musjid, we can do likewise for these four rakaats as well.

Allah Certainly Knows Best.