Al Jumu’ah and the Sabbath: A Comparative Study of the Day of Worship and the Day of Congregation

Abstract

Al-Jumu’ah or a Friday prayer service for those of the Islamic faith, is an
important occasion for them to worship, pray to and acknowledge Allah. In
reflecting the occasion, one can find similarity as that in the Bible, wherein God
specifically points out to a certain day to honor and worship Him. In the essence
of both faith, time is an essential hour or day to worship the Creator, thus it
bridges the two faiths in a definite, particular hour of worship to the Almighty.
The history of Al-Jumu’ah, its conception and its practices is rooted at a particular
time wherein Jews, and Sabbath-keeping people were known to Mohammad
himself, and it is interesting to note that the possible historicity of the belief is
profoundly similar in its practices to that of the keeping of the Sabbath; thus, it
reckons the need for one to seek commonalities over the theology of Al’Jumu’ah
and its practices in reflection to Seventh-Day Adventists’ understanding of the
Sabbath. This paper found that both Al-Jumu’ah and the Sabbath profess to a
special time created by the Creator to be honored, to either worship Him or to be
in worship with one another to Him; it also found that both remarks of a time
wherein this very space and time is not just meant for the reminder of what God
has created or a creation retelling, but also an eschatological nuance of what it is
to come. For the Seventh-Day Adventist, it is a foretelling of a taste of the
Sabbath in heaven, and for Muslims it is a foretelling of an eschatological
conclusion.