Excellence of Salaah
Salaah
BISMILLA HIR RAHMAA NIR RAHEEM
ALLAH (THE EXALTED)’S NAME I START WITH, THE MOST BENEFICENT AND MERCIFUL
Lesson One
ON THE EXCELLENCE OF SALAAH
Allah Almighty says: “safeguard the (five) prayers by performing them at their proper times- especially the middle prayer… (Quran 2:238- Tafseer Jalalayn)
… “Turning towards him in obedience and to what He commands and forbids. Be fearful of him and establish the prayer. Do not be among the idolaters”. (Holy Quran 30:31 – tafseer Jalalayn)
Sayyidina Abu Hurayra (May Allah be pleased with him) said, “I heard the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, say, ‘What do you think would happen if there was a river by someone’s door in which he washed five times every day? Do you think that any dirt would remain on him?’ They said, ‘Not a scrap of dirt would remain on him.’ He said, ‘That is a metaphor of the five prayers by which Allah wipes out wrong actions.'” [Agreed upon]
Sayyidina Jabir (May Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, “The metaphor of the five prayers is that of an sizeable flowing river at the door of one of you in which he washes five times every day.” [Muslim]
Sayyidina Abu Hurayra (May Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, “The five prayers, and Jumu’a to Jumu’a is expiation for what is between them as long as a man has committed no major sins.” [Muslim] Sayyidina Uthman ibn ‘Affan (May Allah be pleased with him) said, “I heard the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, say, “There is no Muslim man who attends a prescribed prayer and does wudu’ for it well, and is humble in it and in its bowing, without that being expiation for the sins before it, as long as he did not commit any major sin. This will always apply.” [Muslim]
On the excellence of walking to the mosque
Sayyidina Abu Hurayra (May Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, “Allah will prepare a residence in the Garden for anyone who goes to the mosque morning and evening, each morning and evening that he goes.” [Agreed upon]
Sayyidina Abu Hurayra (May Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, “Anyone who purifies himself in his house and then goes to one of the houses of Allah to fulfil one of the obligations of Allah, one step removes an error and the other raises him a degree.” [Muslim]
Sayyidina Ubayy ibn Ka’b (May Allah be pleased with him) said, “There was a man of the Ansar and I do not know of any man who lived further from the mosque than him. He never missed a prayer. It was said to him, ‘You should buy a donkey which you could ride in the dark and when it is very hot.’ He said, ‘It would not make me happier if my house were right next to the mosque. I want my steps to the mosque to be written down for me and also my return when I return to my family. The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, “Allah will combine all that for you.”[Muslim]
Sayyidina Abu Musa (May Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, “The people who get the greatest reward for the prayer are those who live furthest away and then the next furthest. Someone who waits for the prayer so that he can pray it with the Imam has a greater reward than someone who prays and then goes to sleep.” [Agreed upon]
Sayyidina Burayda (May Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, “Give good news to those who walk to mosques in the dark that they will have full light on the Day of Rising.” [Abu Dawud and at-Tirmidhi]
Sayyidina Abu Hurayra (May Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, “Shall I direct you to something by which Allah will wipe out errors and raise degrees?’ They said, “Yes please, Messenger of Allah.” He said, “Doing thorough wudu’ in adverse circumstances, taking a lot of steps to the mosques and waiting for one prayer after another prayer. That is what you should hold to. That is what you should hold to.” [Muslim]
Sayyidina Abu Sa’id al-Khudri (May Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, “If you see a man who frequents mosques, then testify to his belief. Allah, the Mighty and Exalted, says, “The mosques of Allah should only be frequented by those who believe in Allah and the Last Day…’ (9:18)” [at-Tirmidhi]
On the excellence of waiting for the prayer
Sayyidina Abu Hurayra (May Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, “Each of you is in the prayer as long as he is waiting for it and there is nothing but the prayer preventing him from going to his family.” [Agreed upon]
Sayyidina Abu Hurayra (May Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, “The angels pray for every one of you as long as you remain in the place in which you prayed and do not break wudu’, saying, ‘O Allah, forgive him! O Allah, show mercy to him!'” [al-Bukhari]
Sayyidina Anas reported (May Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah, May Allah bless him and grant him peace, delayed the ‘Isha’ prayer until the middle of the night and then prayed. Then he turned his face to us after he had prayed and said, ‘The people have prayed and gone to sleep, but you were in prayer the whole time you were waiting for it.'” [al-Bukhari]
On the excellence of the Group prayer
It is related from Sayyidina ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Umar (May Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, “Prayer in a group is twenty-seven times better than the prayer of a man by himself.” (Bukhari)
Sayyidina Ibn Mas’ud (May Allah be pleased with him) said, “Anyone who wants to meet Allah tomorrow as a Muslim should observe these prayers when they are called. Allah has prescribed the sunan of guidance for His Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and they are part of the sunan of guidance. If you prayed them in your houses, like this person who does not come and prays in his house, you would be abandoning the sunnah of your Prophet. If you were to abandon the sunnah of your Prophet, then you would go astray. I have seen that only hypocrites, whose hypocrisy is known, fail to come. A man used to be brought to it, supported between two men, until he was stood up in the prayer line.” [Muslim]
In another variant, “The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, taught us the sunan of guidance, and part of the sunan of guidance is the prayer in the mosque from which the call to it is given.”
Sayyidina Abu’d-Darda’ (May Allah be pleased with him) said, “I heard the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, say, ‘If there are three in a village or desert and they do not pray (together) Shaytan will overpower them. You must perform the group prayer. The wolf devours the stray sheep.” [Abu Dawud]
Encouragement to attend the Group Prayers at Fajr and Isha
Sayyidina Uthman ibn ‘Affan (May Allah be pleased with him) said, “I heard the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, say, ‘If someone prays ‘Isha’ in a group, it is as if he had prayed half of the night. If someone prays Subh (Fajr) in a group, it is as if he had prayed the entire night.'” [Muslim]
Sayyidina Abu Hurayra (May Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Messenger of Allah, May Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, “And if they only knew what was in the prayers of Isha and Subh (Fajr), they would come to them even if they had to crawl.” [Agreed upon]
Sayyidina Abu Hurayra (May Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, “There is no prayer heavier on the hypocrites than Fajr and Isha. If they only knew what is in them, they would come to them even if they had to crawl.” [Agreed upon]
On the command to persevere in the prescribed prayers and the strongest prohibition against abandoning them
Allah Almighty says: “safeguard the (five) prayers by performing them at their proper times- especially the middle prayer… (Quran 2:238- Tafseer Jalalayn)
Sayyidina Ibn Mas’ud (May Allah be pleased with him) said, “I asked the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, ‘What is the best action?’ He said, ‘The prayer in its time,’ I said, ‘Then what?’ He said, ‘Dutifulness to parents.’ I said, ‘Then what?’ He said, ‘Jihad (struggling) in the way of Allah.'” [Agreed upon] Sayyidina Ibn ‘Umar (May Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, “Islam is based on five: the testimony that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, performing the prayer, paying the zakat, hajj to the House and fasting Ramadan.” [Agreed upon]
Sayyidina Mu’adh (May Allah be pleased with him) said, “The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, sent me to Yemen and said, ‘You are going to a people who have a Book. When you come to them, call on them to testify that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. If they obey you in respect of that, then tell them that Allah has made the five prayers obligatory for them every night and day. If they obey you in respect of that, inform them that Allah has made it obligatory for zakat to be taken from their property and given to their poor. If they obey you in respect of that, beware of the things on which people place great value and beware of the supplication of the wronged. There is no screen between him and Allah.'” [Agreed upon]
Sayyidina Jabir (May Allah be pleased with him) said, “I heard the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, say, ‘All that lies between a man and shirk and disbelief is abandoning the prayer.'” [Muslim]
Sayyidina Burayda (May Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, “The contract which is between us and them rests on the prayer. Anyone who abandons it, has rejected belief.” [at-Tirmidhi]
Sayyidina Shaqiq ibn ‘Abdullah, the Follower said, “The Companions of (The Prophet) Muhammad, May Allah bless him and grant him peace, did not think that abandoning any action denoted disbelief, except abandoning the prayer.” [at-Tirmidhi] Sayyidina Abu Hurayra (May Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, “The first action which the slave will be called to account for on the Day of Rising is his prayer. If it is in order, he will have success and win through. If it is not in order, he will be disappointed and lose out. If any of his obligatory prayers are lacking, the Lord, the Mighty and Exalted, will say, ‘See if My slave has any supererogatory actions and use them to complete his obligatory prayer.’ Then the rest of his actions will be assessed in the same way.” [at-Tirmidhi]
On the Excellence of the first row and the command to complete the first rows and make them straight and close together
Sayyidina Jabir ibn Samura (May Allah be pleased with him) said, “The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, came out to us and said, ‘Do you not want to line up as the angels line up in the presence of their Lord?’ We said, ‘Messenger of Allah, how can we line up as the angels line up in the presence of their Lord?’ He said, ‘They fill up the first rows and press together in them.” [Muslim]
Sayyidina Abu Hurayra (May Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, “If people only knew what was in the call to prayer and the first row, and could find no other way to get it than drawing lots for it, they would certainly draw lots for it.” [Agreed upon]
Sayyidina Abu Sa’id al-Khudri (May Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, saw people hanging back and he said to them, “Come forward and complete the row behind me and let those behind you complete your row. If people persist in hanging back, Allah will set them back.” [Muslim]
Sayyidina Abu Mas’ud (May Allah be pleased with him) said, “The Messenger of Allah, May Allah bless him and grant him peace, used to put his hand on our shoulders in the prayer and say, ‘Keep straight and do not be disunified or your hearts will become disunified. Let those among you who have maturity and intelligence stand nearest to me and then those who are closest to them and then those closest to them.” [Muslim]
Sayyidina Anas (May Allah be pleased with him) stated that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, “Make your rows straight. Straightening the row is part of the perfection of the prayer.” [Agreed upon]
In a variant of al-Bukhari, “Straightening the row is part of establishing the prayer.”
Sayyidina Anas (May Allah be pleased with him) said, “When the iqama for the prayer was given, the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, would turn round and face us. He said, ‘Straighten your rows and stand close together for I can see you behind my back.'” [al-Bukhari]
Sayyidina Ibn ‘Umar (May Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, “Make the rows straight, stand shoulder to shoulder and close up the gaps. Give way to your brothers and do not leave any openings for Shaytan. Allah will connect with anyone who connects up the row and Allah will break off from anyone who makes a break in a row.” [Abu Dawud]
Sayyidina Anas (May Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, “Press together in your rows, drawing close to one another and making your shoulders touch. By the One in whose hand my soul is, I see Shaytan coming through the gaps in the row as if he was a small black goat.” [Abu Dawud]