al-Jumua wa Fadluha li-Ahmad ibn Ali al-Marwazi
- Author died
- 292 AH
- Editions
- Dār ‘Ammār
al-Jumua wa Fadluha (Friday and Its Merits) is a specialized hadith monograph compiled by the traditionist and jurist Abu Bakr Ahmad ibn Ali al-Marwazi (d. 292 AH / 905 CE), gathering prophetic traditions and early narrations concerning the virtues, legal rulings, and observances of the Friday prayer .
Author and Context
The author, Abu Bakr Ahmad ibn Ali ibn Said ibn Ibrahim al-Umawi al-Qurashi al-Marwazi, was a prominent hadith transmitter and judge . Originally from Merv—and reported by some to have been from Baghdad—he served as the judge of Homs and subsequently as the deputy judge of Damascus under Abu Zur'ah Muhammad ibn Uthman . He narrated from major authorities such as Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Yahya ibn Main, Ali ibn al-Jad, and Ishaq ibn Abi Israil, while leading scholars such as al-Nasai transmitted extensively from him and deemed him reliable . al-Jumua wa Fadluha was written as part of his broader corpus of focused thematic hadith works, which also included Kitab al-Ilm and several individual musnad collections .
Scope and Content
The work compiles narrations equipped with full chains of transmission (asānīd) revolving around the significance of Friday (Yawm al-Jumua) and the congregational prayer . Among the subjects covered in its narrations are:
- The spiritual superiority and distinct virtues of Friday .
- Prophetic warnings against abandoning or staying behind from the Friday congregational prayer .
- The timing of the prayer relative to the sun's zenith (zawāl) .
- Legal parameters regarding who is obligated to attend and the locations where the prayer is established, such as reports regarding its requirement in major settlements (miṣr jāmiʿ) rather than nomadic desert communities .
Transmission and Publication
The collection was transmitted down by later traditionists through Damascene scholarly lines; Abu Tahir al-Silafi recorded receiving an authorization (ijāzah) for the text with an isnad traced back through Abu Ahmad Abd Allah ibn Muhammad ibn al-Mufassir al-Dimashqi to al-Marwazi directly . Later hadith authorities, including Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, had access to the work and cited it among al-Marwazi's surviving compositions .
The work was edited by Samir Amin al-Zuhayri and published by Dar Ammar in Amman (1st edition, 1407 AH / 1987 CE) .
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