Answered by Sidi Salman Younas
What is the time of ghusl on Friday? Can it be made on that day after Fajr, or can it be made before, as the day of Jumga begins after the Magrib of the previous day?
salamu `alaykum wa rahmatullah
I pray you are well. May Allah grant you all good in this life and the next.
There are two opinions in the Hanafi school regarding the ghusl of Friday:
(1) That it is a sunna for the Friday prayer,
(2) That it is a sunna for the day of Friday.
The relied-upon position within the school is that it is a sunna for the Friday prayer itself. Thus, the sunna is only optimally fulfilled if one goes to the Friday prayer in a state of ritual-purity that is due to ghusl. If one loses his state of ritual-purity attained through ghusl, performs only the ablution (wudhu’) again, and then prays the Friday prayer, the sunna is not fulfilled because his state of purity is now from a subsequent ablution and not the ghusl itself. (See: Hashiya Tahtawi (Pg: 107 Ed. Qadim Kutub Khana))
The consideration here is to pray in a state of ritual-purity that is due to the ghusl itself. Therefore, even if one performed ghusl before fajr and remained in a state of purity till the Friday prayer he is considered to have fulfilled the sunna. (Radd al Muhtar) In most cases though, it is not reasonably possible to maintain a state of purity from the night before i.e. after maghrib time before the day of Friday, without having to renew it.
Also, it is permitted to follow the position that the ghusl is a sunna for the day of Friday, if need permits, such as for those who work on Fridays. According to this opinion, even if one does not pray the Friday prayer in a state of ritual-purity attained through ghusl the sunna is still fulfilled by merely doing ghusl for the day.
The ghusl though must be performed after sunrise, not before it, according to those who held this position. This is mentioned by Imam Tahtawi in his Hashiya, Ibn `Abidin in his Radd al Muhtar, and others. It is also mentioned that ghusl should be done before the Friday prayer and not after, although some stipulated that it could be done after as well.
To summarize what has been said above:
(1) According to the relied upon position the sunna is only fulfilled if one prays the Friday prayer in a state of ritual-purity that is due to ghusl, whether this ghusl was done before fajr or after.
(2) The opinion that ghusl is a sunna for the day of Friday (and not specifically the prayer) is a followable position. However, those who hold this position stipulate that ghusl should be done after fajr and before the Friday prayer itself, although some said the sunna is fulfilled even if ghusl is done after the time of the Friday prayer.
And Allah Knows Best
Wasalam
Salman Younas
Approved by Faraz Rabbani