In response to a report submitted by the nazim of Dar-ul-Ifta regarding the offering of Jumuah or the Zuhr prayers after the Eid prayer in case of the coinciding of Eid and Friday, Hazrat Amirul Momineen, Khalifatul Masih Vaa, in his letter dated 16 May 2021, provided the following guidance:
“We only find the position and practice of Hazrat Abdullah ibn Zubayrra in support of not performing the Jumuah or the Zuhr prayers following the Eid prayer in case of the coinciding of Eid and Friday. This view is merely based on a maqtu‘ narration. Moreover, we find a contradiction in the statements of two of the narrators of this tradition. According to authentic and reliable ahadith, the sunnah of the Holy Prophetsa, the view of the rightly-guided Caliphs and the position of the Companionsra were that all of them would perform the Friday prayer on time in such a case, in addition to performing the Eid prayer, and would give leave to the people coming from remote places and would direct them to instead offer the Zuhr prayer in their respective areas. Or, on some occasions, they did not offer the Friday prayer after the Eid prayer, but the Zuhr prayer was certainly still offered on time.
“The same view and practice are found during the times of the Promised Messiahas and his Caliphs, except for the one-off practice of Hazrat Khalifatul Masih IIIrh when he did not perform the Jumu‘ah or the Zuhr prayer after leading the Eid prayer in accordance with the above-mentioned narration of Hazrat Abdullah ibn Zubayrra.
“However, this narration of Hazrat Abdullah ibn Zubayrra is not based on any statement or action of the Holy Prophetsa or his rightly-guided Caliphs. Therefore, the obligatory prayers cannot be abandoned just because of this maqtu‘ narration, whose narrators also contradict each other. Thus, please revise [the book] Fiqh-e-Ahmadiyya to exclude the section based on this tradition from it and write there that if Eid and Friday coincide and Jumu‘ah is not offered following the Eid prayer, then the Zuhr prayer must still be offered on time.”