Praise be to Allah.
There is no regular Sunnah prayer before Jumu’ah according to the more correct of the two scholarly opinions, but it prescribed for the Muslim, when he comes to the mosque, to pray whatever Allah enables him to pray, saying salaam after each two rak’ahs, because the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: “The prayers of the night and the day [i.e., other than the obligatory prayers] are two by two.” (Narrated by Imaam Ahmad and the authors of Sunan with a hasan isnaad; the original is to be found in al-Saheeh without any mention of the day.)
And many saheeh reports indicate that what is prescribed for the Muslim when he comes to the mosque on Friday is to pray whatever Allah wills he should pray before the imaam comes out. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) did not specify whether it should be two or four or more. All of that is good, but the minimum is two rak’ahs to “greet the mosque.”
With regard to after Jumu’ah, there is a regular Sunnah prayer, the minimum of which is two rak’ahs and the maximum is four, because the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said, “Whoever among you prays after Jumu’ah, let him pray four (rak’ahs)” (narrated by Muslim, al-Jumu’ah, 8881). And he (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) used to pray two rak’ahs after Jumu’ah in his house. May Allah help us all to do that which pleases Him.
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