A Deliberation on the History of the Friday Prayer to the End of the Abbasid Period
Subject Areas : The Journal of Islamic History and Civilisation
1 - ندارد
Keywords: Friday prayer, Sermons, Caliphate, legitimacy,
Abstract :
As an expression of the ideas of “remembrance” and “prayer” in theKoran, the Friday prayer is primarily the manifestation of thecommunal worship of God. Surviving reports of the contents of thesermons by the Prophet, Imams, and the first four Caliphs during theFriday prayer, show these sermons to have occasionally includedsocial and political contents. However, in the course of the evolutionof these sermons, changes in their substance and significationtransformed them into discourses with completely political andgovernmental contents. The most important of these changes was arequirement to pray for the ruling Caliph by whomever delivered thesermon. As a result, the notion of "sermonizing in someone's name"was created and came to generally signify the legitimization of thatperson's rule. The imposition of purely political functionalities uponthe sermons that were delivered at Friday prayers, gradually erodedtheir sanctity in Islamic history.
