Jummah Mubarak, a blessed Friday

Jummah Mubarak means "a blessed Friday". In Arabic it is جُمُعَةٌ مُبَارَكَةٌ (jumuʿatun mubārakah): jumuʿah is Friday, the day of gathering, and mubarakah is the feminine of mubarak, blessed. Many Muslims send it to family and friends every Friday.

An honest note: is it a sunnah?

There is no hadith instructing this greeting. Neither the Prophet ﷺ nor the Companions are reported to have greeted each other with "Jummah Mubarak". So it is not a sunnah, and it earns no special reward of its own. What is true is that Friday is a blessed day: "The best day on which the sun rises is Friday. On it Adam was created, on it he entered Paradise, and on it he was taken out of it" (Sahih Muslim 854). Wishing someone the blessing of a blessed day is a good dua.

What scholars say, Hanafi first

SeekersGuidance, a Hanafi institute, answered that saying it is permissible, because it falls under the general allowance to congratulate one another on good occasions, as with Eid. Other Hanafi muftis add the same three conditions in different words: do not believe it is a sunnah, do not make it a fixed ritual, and do not blame people who do not say it. Our longer answer is Is saying Jummah Mubarak a bid'ah?

What to avoid

• Treating it as a required weekly greeting, or blaming those who do not say it.
• Chain messages that promise a reward, or forgiveness, for forwarding them. They have no basis.
• Letting the message replace what Friday actually asks of us.

The real sunnahs of Friday

• Ghusl and going early to the prayer (Sahih al-Bukhari 877 and 881).
• Salawat on the Prophet ﷺ: "Send much salawat on me on Friday, for your salawat is shown to me" (Sunan Abi Dawud 1047).
• Surah Al-Kahf on Friday (al-Hakim and al-Bayhaqi, from Abu Said al-Khudri, graded sahih by al-Albani). Read it on Surah Al-Kahf.
• Dua in the hour of Friday, an hour in which no Muslim asks Allah for good except that He gives it (Sahih al-Bukhari 935, Sahih Muslim 852). Many scholars held it to be the last hour before Maghrib.

A Friday message that reminds people of one of these is the best Jummah Mubarak. See the sunnahs of Friday.

How to reply to Jummah Mubarak

Reply with a good dua: barakallahu feek ("may Allah bless you"), wa antum bi-khayr, or "Jummah Mubarak to you too". See barakallahu feek.

Spellings

Jummah Mubarak, Jumma Mubarak, Juma Mubarak, Jumu'ah Mubarak and Jumuah Mubarakah are the same wish. In Arabic, write جمعة مباركة, with the feminine ending.

1. Sahih Muslim 854, from Abu Hurayrah.
2. Sahih al-Bukhari 877 and 881; Sahih al-Bukhari 935 and Sahih Muslim 852.
3. Sunan Abi Dawud 1047, from Aws ibn Aws.
4. On Surah Al-Kahf on Friday: al-Hakim and al-Bayhaqi, from Abu Said al-Khudri, graded sahih by al-Albani.
5. Hanafi answers on the phrase: SeekersGuidance (Faraz Khan), Mathabah, Darul Uloom Trinidad, Darul Iftaa Zambia and Mufti Online, collected on islamqa.org.
6. Ibn Abidin, Radd al-Muhtar, Bab al-Idayn, on congratulations.

The rulings on this page are pending review by the scholars on our team.