Explanation of the Hadith: (The prayer of a man in congregation is twenty-seven degrees better than his prayer in his home and his prayer in his marketplace.)

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The Shaykh : The eleventh hadith. He said: And from Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said:

The prayer of a man in congregation is twenty or twenty-one degrees better than his prayer in his market or his home. That is because when one of them performs wudu' and perfects his wudu', then goes to the mosque intending nothing but prayer — nothing urges him but prayer, nothing drives him but prayer — he does not take a step without a degree being raised for him and a sin being removed from him because of it, until he enters the mosque. And when he enters the mosque, he is in prayer as long as the prayer keeps him there. And the angels pray for one of you as long as he remains in the place where he prayed, saying: O Allah, have mercy on him, O Allah, forgive him, O Allah, accept his repentance, as long as he does not cause harm in it — in the mosque — as long as he does not commit a new act of impurity in it.

صلاة الرجل في جماعة تزيد على صلاته في سوقه وبيته بضعًا وعشرين درجة ؛ وذلك أنَّ أحدهم إذا توضأ فأحسن الوضوء ، ثم أتى المسجد لا يريد إلا الصلاة ؛ لا يَنهَزُه إلا الصلاة ، لا يدفعه إلا الصلاة ؛ لم يخطُ خطوةً إلا رفع له بها درجة ، وحُطَّ عنه بها خطيئة حتى يدخل المسجد ، فإذا دخل المسجد كان في الصلاة ما كانت الصلاة هي تحبسه ، والملائكة يصلُّون على أحدكم ما دام في مجلسه الذي صلَّى فيه ؛ يقولون : اللهم ارحمه ، اللهم اغفر له ، اللهم تُبْ عليه ما لم يؤذِ فيه - في المسجد - ما لم يُحدِثْ فيه

, agreed upon by al-Bukhari and Muslim, and this is the wording of Muslim. And his saying (peace and blessings be upon him):

makes him stand up

ينهزه

is with an open ya and ha and a zay; meaning: he takes it out and sets it up.
This hadith explains the virtue of congregational prayer, and not only that, but also the virtue of the steps one takes to attend the congregational prayer, and not only that, but also sitting in the mosque waiting for the congregational prayer. In all these preliminaries before the congregational prayer, there are these virtues and these good deeds that he (peace and blessings be upon him) mentioned. As for the congregational prayer itself, its virtue is twenty-seven degrees, as in some explicit hadiths. This is an explanation of the "several" mentioned in this hadith; where he (peace and blessings be upon him) said:

The prayer of a man in congregation is twenty-five degrees better than his prayer in his market, in his place, in his shop, in his store, and in his house if he prays alone.

صلاة الرجل في جماعة تزيد على صلاته في سوقه ، في محلِّه ، في دكَّانه ، في متجره ، وفي بيته إذا صلى وحده بضعًا وعشرين درجة

. Here, "several" is linguically known to mean less than ten. Its explanation came in a hadith—also in al-Bukhari and Muslim—of twenty-seven degrees. This number does not contradict the other narration of twenty-five degrees; because it is a known principle among scholars of usul al-fiqh and scholars of hadith that the additional amount is always adopted, whether in rulings or in reports. Thus, the twenty-five is included in the twenty-seven, and both numbers, twenty-five and twenty-seven, explain "several" from the Arabic linguistic perspective.
Therefore, what one should believe is that the congregational prayer exceeds the individual prayer, whether they pray it in the house or in the market, by twenty-seven degrees.

Source www.al-albany.com

The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.

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