Aslam

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 Allaah enables him to pray,

saying salaam after each two rak’ahs, because the Prophet

(peace and blessings of Allaah 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

Allaah wills he should pray before the imaam comes out. The Prophet

(peace and blessings of Allaah 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 Allaah 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 Allaah be upon him) used to pray two rak’ahs

after Jumu’ah in his house. May Allaah help us all to do that which

pleases Him.