Hadiths from "Riyad al-Salihin" by al-Nawawi, Chapter on Sincerity and Bringing Intention to All Apparent and Hidden Actions, Words, and States

Machine translationRead the Arabic original

The Shaykh : The eleventh hadith. It was narrated from Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) that he said: The Messenger of Allah (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 and his house; and that is because if one of them performs ablution and perfects the ablution, then he goes to the mosque, not wanting anything but prayer, nothing urging him but prayer, nothing driving him but prayer; he does not take a step except that a degree is raised for him thereby, and a sin is removed from him thereby, until he enters the mosque. And when he enters the mosque, he is in prayer as long as the prayer holds him. And the angels pray for one of you as long as he is 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 harm in it—in the mosque—as long as he does not break his wudu in it.

صلاة الرجل في جماعة تزيد على صلاته في سوقه وبيته بضعًا وعشرين درجة ؛ وذلك أن أحدهم إذا توضَّأ فأحسن الوضوء ثم أتى المسجد لا يريد إلا الصلاة ، لا ينهزه إلا الصلاة ، لا يدفعه إلا الصلاة ؛ لم يخطُ خطوةً إلا رُفِعَ له بها درجة ، وحُطَّ عنه بها خطيئة حتى يدخل المسجد ، فإذا دخل المسجد كان في الصلاة ما كانت الصلاة هي تحبِسُه ، 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

. It is 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 drives them out and rouses them.
This hadith explains the virtue of congregational prayer, and not only that; but also the virtue of the steps one takes to attend 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 "bids" (a few) 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

. So "bids" here, linguistically, is 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 one always takes the additional amount, whether in rulings or in reports. So the twenty-five are included in the twenty-seven, and each of the two numbers, twenty-five and twenty-seven, explains "bids" from the Arabic perspective. Therefore, what one should believe is that congregational prayer exceeds 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.

Similar fatwas