This also created tension between Shias and those Sunni...

This also created tension between Shias and those Sunni Sufis who did not believe in Jummah prayers to be valid under non-Islamic rule. The appointment of an Usuli prayer leader proved divisive, since to pray behind him implied acceptance of his spiritual leadership. The Sufis held meditation sessions, with dancing and singing, on Fridays in the same hall where some Shi’is were offering Friday prayers in congregation.

An Extract from Newman, [36] : Thus at least by early in the second Safawid century (d. 1040/1634), rationalist scholars were employing the term al-jimi’ li’l-sharct’ir al-iftct-used, for all practical purposes, virtually interchangeably with such terms as na’ih ‘Imam, fuqih, and ul-hakim al-shar’i explicitly to refer not only to the individual who had attained expertise in the rationalist religious sciences to practise ijtihad and who consequently possessed jurisprudential authority within the community, but also to the individual who possessed authority in such other areas of affairs of import to the daily life of the community in the occultation as the implementation of Al-hudid, the performance of Friday prayer and the collection and distribution of al-zakat and al-khums.

Indeed, certainly by this time, the two were seen as one and the same. Expertise in the jurisprudential went hand-in-hand with authority in the practical. [1] During the life of Rasool Allah saww , and during the Caliphat of Ali asws Ibn Abi Talib asws [2] دعائم الإسلام، ج‏1، ص: 182, بحار الأنوار (ط – بيروت)، ج‏86، ص: 256, مستدرك الوسائل و مستنبط المسائل، ج‏6، ص: 13, [3] Manlayazahoor ul Faqi Vol-1 H. 1456 [4] Bihar-ul-Anwar, vol. 7, pp. 7 (Haqaiq-ul-wasait, pp. 245).