The First Jumu'ah and the First Two Khutbahs

❧A Prayer He Had Never Prayed Before

The Prophet ﷺ had never prayed Ṣalāt al-Jumuʿah in his life. Jumuʿah had been commanded while he was still in Makkah, but Makkah was a place of persecution; there was no freedom to gather publicly for prayer. So the Prophet ﷺ sent word to Madinah through Muṣʿab ibn ʿUmayr (who was already there teaching the Anṣār): establish the Jumuʿah. Muṣʿab began leading Jumuʿah in Madinah approximately a year or less before the Prophet's arrival. So the Muslims of Madinah had been praying Jumuʿah; the Prophet ﷺ had not.

❧Where the First Jumuʿah Happened

The Prophet ﷺ departed Qubāʾ on the Friday morning after announcing his intention Thursday night. He was on his way to Madinah proper for the first time. The time for Jumuʿah came while he was still in transit, in the territory of the Banū Sālim clan, between Qubāʾ and central Madinah. He stopped there and prayed Jumuʿah on the spot. There was no masjid yet. He gave the khutbah right there.

A masjid was later built at that location, the Masjid of Banū Sālim, in memory of this first prayer.

❧The First Khutbah (Part One): Action

The first khutbah the Prophet ﷺ ever delivered was short, as all his khutbahs were. The Prophet ﷺ said: "It is from the understanding of a man that he shortens his khutbah and lengthens his ṣalāh." His ṣalāh was longer than his khutbah; the khutbah itself was three to five minutes at most.

The first part was about charity, mortality, and accountability:

He reminded them that death is certain, that they would meet Allāh, and that Allāh would ask each of them about what they were given and what they spent. Then he said: "Whoever can save himself from the Fire, even with half a date", and the word used is shiqq al-tamrah, not quite even "half", "let him do so. And if he cannot even do that, then with a kalimah ṭayyibah, a good word, because every good deed is multiplied tenfold."

The theological structure: threat (Fire, accountability, meeting Allāh) AND promise (multiplication of deeds, the reward of even the smallest act of charity). This is the Quranic principle of targhīb wa tarhīb, hope and fear simultaneously. Islam does not separate them. Human nature needs both the carrot and the stick.

The timing was also perfect: this was the beginning of a new community that would need to build everything from scratch, a mosque, houses, a system. They needed to give.

❧The First Khutbah (Part Two): Spirit

After sitting down briefly, he stood again for the second portion. This began with the Khuṭbat al-Ḥājah:

"إِنَّ الْحَمْدَ لِلَّهِ نَحْمَدُهُ وَنَسْتَعِينُهُ وَنَسْتَغْفِرُهُ وَنَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنْ شُرُورِ أَنْفُسِنَا وَمِنْ سَيِّئَاتِ أَعْمَالِنَا مَنْ يَهْدِهِ اللَّهُ فَلَا مُضِلَّ لَهُ وَمَنْ يُضْلِلْهُ فَلَا هَادِيَ لَهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ وَحْدَهُ لَا شَرِيكَ لَهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُهُ وَرَسُولُهُ, أَمَّا بَعْدُ"

Inna al-ḥamda lillāh, naḥmadahu wa nastaʿīnuhu wa nastaghfiruhu, wa naʿūdhu billāhi min shurūri anfusinā wa min sayyi'āti aʿmālinā. Man yahdih Allāhu falā muḍilla lah, wa man yuḍlilhu falā hādiya lah. Wa ashhadu an lā ilāha illā Allāh waḥdahu lā sharīka lah, wa ashhadu anna Muḥammadan ʿabduhu wa rasūluh. Ammā baʿd.

Then he continued with the substance of the second khutbah, entirely spiritual, not action-based:

The successful person is the one whose heart Allāh has beautified; whom Allāh has brought from kufr into Islām; whom Allāh has chosen above others for the greatest of matters. "Love what Allāh loves. And love Allāh with your entire heart", bi-kulli qulūbikum. The entire heart. Not a portion. The entire heart. "And never tire of the speech of Allāh and His remembrance", never tire of the Quran, never tire of dhikr, and do not let your hearts harden, because reading the Quran and doing dhikr softens the heart. (The connection: he commands these two practices, then immediately warns against hardness of heart, because the practices prevent the hardness.)

Allāh chooses what He wills, and He has chosen these, the Quran and dhikr, to be the best of all deeds. Worship Allāh alone. Have taqwā. Be sincere. Love one another bi-rūḥillāhi baynakum, "with the Rūḥ of Allāh between you," i.e., with the spirit of Islām, in the way of Allāh, for the sake of Allāh. And remember that Allāh hates that His promise be broken, an indirect reminder that each of them had made a covenant with Allāh by entering Islām, and they must honor it.

Then he said: "Wa-s-salāmu ʿalaykum."

That was the entire khutbah. Two to three minutes in Arabic, roughly.

❧Why So Short?

The Prophet ﷺ was speaking to people whose īmān was at a completely different level from the average Muslim today. They did not need the same reminders. His khutbahs were not educational lectures; they were spiritual calibrations for people already living Islam 24/7. The length of the khutbah was suited to the audience.

Shaykh Yasir Qadhi notes that there is a legitimate reason contemporary khutbahs are longer: Jumuʿah is often the only time many Muslims set foot in a masjid in the week, perhaps the only religious instruction some will receive. The function has expanded, and with it the duration. But the principle remains: keeping khutbahs reasonable (25 minutes or so) is more aligned with the Sunnah than an hour-long lecture.

❧The Khuṭbat al-Ḥājah and Ḍimād al-Azdī

The Khuṭbat al-Ḥājah, that opening passage of praise, seeking help, seeking forgiveness, declaration of tawḥīd, and testimony of prophethood, was not just a formal introduction. It was, in the words of those who have studied it, one of the most concentrated expressions of Islamic theology in the Arabic language.

Its power is illustrated by the story of Ḍimād al-Azdī, a Yemeni medicine man who came to Makkah and was warned by the Quraysh about the Prophet ﷺ. So frightened was he that he put cotton in his ears every time the Prophet approached. Then he reconsidered, he was intelligent, he said to himself; he could handle it. He removed the cotton and approached the Prophet ﷺ directly.

The Prophet ﷺ recited the Khuṭbat al-Ḥājah. Just the opening. He had not yet begun his actual message.

Ḍimād interrupted: "Qif! Aʿid ʿalayya kalimātika!", "Stop! Repeat those words again."

The Prophet ﷺ repeated it.

Ḍimād said: "I have memorized the poetry and eloquence of men and Jinn. Wallāhi, I have never heard anything as eloquent as this. By Allāh, you must be a man whom Allāh inspires." He accepted Islam right there, without having heard the actual message, just its introduction.

Ibn Taymiyyah wrote a complete treatise analyzing the Khuṭbat al-Ḥājah. Ibn al-Qayyim devoted many pages to it in his commentary on Sunan Abī Dāwūd. Shaykh al-Albānī wrote a dedicated booklet compiling all its narrations.