Answer
Wa `alaykum As-Salamu waRahmatullahi wa Barakatuh.
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.
In this fatwa:
There are no sound hadiths concerning reading Surat Aal-Imran on Friday. All the reports concerning that are either very weak or fabricated.
In his response to the question, Sheikh Muhammad Saleh Al-Munajjid, a prominent Saudi Islamic lecturer and author, stated:
Reading Surat Aal-Imran on Friday
There are no sound hadiths concerning reading Surat Aal-Imran on Friday. All the reports concerning that are either very weak or fabricated.
Ibn Abbas said: “Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: ‘Whoever recites the Surah in which the family of Imran (Aal-Imran) are mentioned on Fridays, Allah and His angels will send blessings upon him until the sun sets.’” (Al-Tabarani)
This hadith is very weak or fabricated
Al-Haythami said:
“The isnad of this hadith includes Talhah ibn Zayd al-Riqqi, who is very weak.” (Majma al-Zawaid, 2/168)
Also Ibn Hajar said:
Talhah is very weak. Imam Ahmad and Abu Dawud accused him of fabricating reports. (Fayd al-Qadir, 6/199)
Likewise, Sheikh Al-Albani said:
“This hadith is fabricated”. Daif al-Jami)
Al-Taymi narrated in al-Targheeb that “Whoever recites Surat Al-Baqarah and Surat Aal-Imran on the night of Jumuah will have reward like that which is between the seventh earth and the seventh heaven.”
Al-Mannawi said:
“This hadith is strange and very weak.”(Fayd al-Qadir, 6/199)
Allah Almighty knows best.
Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.