Hazrat Amirul Momineenaa was asked as to why, at the end of the first Friday sermon, the imam sits down and then gets up to deliver the second sermon [khutbah thania].
In a letter dated 23 February 2020, Huzooraa gave the following guidance on this issue:
“This is the sunnah of the Holy Prophetsa. Hence, in the books of hadith, the method of delivering the Friday sermon of the Holy Prophetsa is described as follows – that he would stand up and deliver his sermon and upon completing his preaching, he would sit down quietly for a few moments. He would then get up again and deliver the khutbah thania. The purpose of this, as some scholars have written, may be to clearly distinguish between the two sermons.
“However, it should also be kept in mind that if an imam is unable to sit down due to some difficulty, he can deliver the first sermon and stand in silence for a few moments and then deliver the second sermon as was the practice of Hazrat Khalifatul Masih IIIrh, when he could not sit down because of having fallen from a horse. At that time, after delivering the first sermon, he would stand quietly for a few moments and then deliver the second sermon. In the same way, during the sermon on the first Friday after I had a gallbladder operation, I also followed the same practice of standing in silence for a few moments and then delivering the khutbah thania.”