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What is the ruling on the preacher reciting in the Friday prayer what is suitable for the sermon's topic instead of Surat Al-A'la (Sabih) and Surat Al-Ghashiyah?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Muslims should venerate the Sunnah of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, and follow it, especially the Friday preacher, as people emulate him. It was part of his guidance, peace and blessings be upon him, to recite Surahs "Al-Jumu'ah" and "Al-Munafiqoon," or "Al-Jumu'ah" and "Al-Ghashiyah," or "Al-A'la" and "Al-Ghashiyah" in the Friday prayer. As for choosing verses appropriate to the sermon's topic, this is an innovation (bid'ah), because neither the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, nor the righteous predecessors did it. Ibn Uthaymeen said: "This is called an innovation." Bakr Abu Zayd said: "Committing to that is an innovation, and likewise intending to deviate from what is prescribed to something else as a form of Sunnah involves an objection to the Shari'ah."

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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