There is a mosque near us whose administrators prevent people from performing the Sunnah prayer before the Friday prayer. What is the ruling of Islamic law regarding performing the Sunnah of the Friday prayer?

The Sunnah of the Friday prayer is like the Sunnah of Dhuhr, which consists of four rak‘ahs before and two others after it. However, the optimal manner is to pray four rak’ahs before the Friday prayer and four rak’ahs after it.

ʿAli (may Allah be pleased with him) said, “The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) would pray four rak‘ahs before the Friday prayer and four after it, making the tasleem [salutations] in the last rak’ah of each set of prayer” (recorded by al-Tabarani in Al-Awsat; it is a sound hadith).

Abu Huraira (may Allah be pleased with him) narrated that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “Whoever among you prays after the Friday prayer, let him pray four rak‘ahs” (recorded by Muslim in his Sahih, and by al-Tirmidhi in his Sunan, who graded it sound).

The luminary Muḥyi al-Din al-Nawawi, the Shafiʿi scholar (may Allah have mercy on him), noted in Al-Majmuʿ (4:9), “It is recommended to perform a prayer both before and after the Friday prayer. The minimum is two rak‘ahs before and two after it, while the optimal number is four rak’ahs before and four after it … As for the Sunnah before it, its basis is the hadith of ʿAbdullah Ibn Mughaffal (may Allah be pleased with him) who said, ‘Between every two adhans there is a prayer,’ in analogy to the Dhuhr prayer.”

The ruling

Based on the above, the Sunnah prayer performed before the Friday prayer is legislated and recommended. There is no objection to performing it, and it is not permissible to reject it.

And Allah the Almighty knows best.