Allaah Almighty Says (what means):
“And when you have completed the prayer, remember Allaah standing,
sitting, or [lying] on your sides. But when you become secure,
re-establish [regular] prayer. Indeed, prayer has been decreed upon the
believers a decree of specified times.”
(Quran 4:103)
For forty consecutive years, Sa`eed Ibn Al-Musayyib, may Allaah have
mercy upon him, was to be found in the mosque before the Athaan (call to
prayer) was made. `Umar, may Allaah be pleased with him, became
unconscious after he was stabbed, and according to Al-Miswar Ibn
Makhramah, may Allaah have mercy upon him, it was said: “Nothing would
wake him up except the call to prayer, if he is still alive.” So people
said to him:
“The prayer has finished, O Chief of the Believers!”
He therefore awoke and said: “The prayer! I swear by Allaah that there
is no share of Islaam for whoever abandons the prayer.” He then
performed the prayer while his wound was bleeding.
After Ar-Rabee` Ibn Khaytham, may Allaah have mercy upon him, became
partially paralysed, he would go to the mosque helped by two men. He was
told: “O Abu Yaazeed! You have been given permission to pray at home.”
He replied: “You have said the truth, but I heard the caller say: ‘Hayya
`ala al-falah’ (rush to success), and so I thought that whoever hears
this call should answer it, even by crawling.”
‘Uday Ibn Haatim, may Allaah be pleased with him, said: “Every time
the time for prayer arrives, it finds me eager and ready to perform it
(i.e. in the state of ablution).”
Abu Bakr Ibn ‘Abdullaah Al-Muzani, may Allaah have mercy upon him,
said: “Who is like you, O son of Aadam? Whenever you desire, you use
water and make ablution, go to the place of worship and thus enter the
presence of your Lord (i.e. start praying) without a translator or
barrier between you and Him!”
Abu Rajaa’ Al-`Ataaridi, may Allaah have mercy upon him, said on his
deathbed: “I am not grieved by leaving anything behind, except that I
used to bow down on my face five times a day before my Lord, the Exalted
and most Honoured.”
Abul-‘Aaliyah, may Allaah have mercy upon him, said: “I would travel
for days to meet a man and the first thing I would note about him would
be his prayer. If he was one who established the prayer perfectly and on
time, I would stay with him and hear the knowledge he had to impart. If
I found him to be careless concerning the prayer, I would leave him and
say to myself that for things other than the prayer, he would be even
more careless.”
When ‘Ali Ibn Al-Husayn, may Allaah have mercy upon him, would
perform ablution, the colour of his face would change. His family asked
him why this would always happen and he would reply: “Do you know before
Whom I am about to stand (in prayer)?”
Yazeed Ibn ‘Abdullaah, may Allaah have mercy upon him, was asked:
“Should we make a roof for our mosque?” He replied: “Purify your hearts
and your mosque (in its current state) will suffice you.”
‘Uday Ibn Haatim, may Allaah be pleased with him, said: “Ever since I
became a Muslim, I always made sure to have ablution when the Athaan is
called.”
‘Ubayd Ibn Ja`far, may Allaah have mercy upon him, said: “I never saw
my uncle Bishr Ibn Mansoor miss the first Takbeer (that commences the
congregational prayer in the mosque), and whenever any person stood up
in our mosque to ask people for help, he would always give him
something.”
Ibn Sam`ah, may Allaah have mercy upon him, said:”For forty years, I
only missed the first Takbeer once, and that was when my mother died. If
you know of a man’s disinterest in being present in the mosque for the
first Takbeer, then wash your hands of him (i.e. know that there is no
good in him).”
Sufyaan Ibn `Uyaynah, may Allaah have mercy upon him, said:
“Honouring the prayer includes arriving before the Iqaamah (the call
that establishes the prayer) is called.”
Maymoon Ibn Mahraan, may Allaah have mercy upon him, was once delayed
from coming to the mosque on time. When he did eventually arrive, he
was told that the people had already concluded the prayer: “We all
belong to Allaah and to Him shall be our return! I value the
congregational prayer more than being made governor of Iraq,” he
lamented.
Yoonus Ibn ‘Abdullaah, may Allaah have mercy upon him, said: “What is
the matter with me? If I lose a mere chicken I feel concerned, but when
I miss a prayer in congregation it does not grieve me!”
`Umar, may Allaah be pleased with him, once said while standing on
the pulpit: “A man may have white hair in Islam (i.e. reach old age
while being Muslim), but has not yet completed even a single prayer for
Allaah the Exalted!” He was asked: “Why is that?” He replied: “Because
he does not perfect the prayer’s required Khushoo` (solemness) and fails
to be attentive to Allaah with his heart.”
Hammaad Ibn Salamah, may Allaah have mercy upon him, said: “I have
never stood up for prayer without imagining that the Hellfire is before
my eyes.”
Mu`aath Ibn Jabal, may Allaah be pleased with him, advised his son
saying: “My son! Pray the prayer of he who is just about to leave this
world, and imagine that you may never be able to pray again. Know that
the believer dies between two good deeds: one that he has just
performed, and the other that he intended to perform next.”
Bakr Al-Muzani, may Allaah have mercy upon him, said: “If you want
your prayer to be of benefit to you then say to yourself prior to it
that you may not have the chance to perform another prayer.'”
Shubrumah, may Allaah have mercy upon him, said:”We once accompanied
Qarz Al-Haarithi on a journey; whenever we would camp down in an area,
he would scan it with his eyes and when he found a good piece of land
that he liked, he would go to it and pray there until it was time for us
to leave.”
Al-Qaasim Ibn Muhammad, may Allaah have mercy upon him, said:
“Whenever I went out in the morning, I would visit (my aunt) `Aa’ishah,
may Allaah be pleased with her, and greet her. One day, I found her
performing the Dhuhaa prayer and reciting the following verse from the
Quran repeatedly, while crying and invoking Allaah (which means):
“So Allaah conferred favour upon us and protected us from the punishment of the Scorching Fire.”
(Quran 52:27)
I stood there until I felt weary, then I left and went to the
marketplace, telling myself that I would return to her when I finish.
Later, when I did return to her, I found her still standing in prayer,
reciting the same verse, and crying and invoking Allaah.'”
Maymoon Ibn Hayyaan, may Allaah have mercy upon him, said: “I never
saw Muslim Ibn Yasaar turn his head while praying, whether the prayer
was short or long. Once, a part of the mosque collapsed while he was
praying in the mosque and the noise caused people who were as far away
as the market to be terrified, but he felt no fear whatsoever and
continued praying without even moving his head.” He, may Allaah have
mercy upon him, also said: “I accompanied `Ataa’ Ibn Rabaah for eighteen
years. When he became old and weak, he would stand in prayer and read
close to two hundred verses from Chapter Al-Baqarah while standing so
firmly that no part of him would move.”
Abu Bakr Ibn ‘Ayyaash, may Allaah have mercy upon him, said: “If you
saw Habeeb Ibn Abu Thaabit while in prostration, you would think that he
was dead due to its extended length.”
‘Ali Ibn Al-Fudhayl, may Allaah have mercy upon him, said: “I saw
Ath-Thawri go into prostration while praying, and I performed Tawaaf
(circumambulation) around the House (i.e., the Ka’bah) seven times
before he raised his head from prostration.”
‘Uthmaan Ibn Abi Dahrash, may Allaah have mercy upon him, said: “I
never performed a prayer without invoking Allaah afterwards to forgive
me for falling into shortcomings in the way I performed it.”
Mu`aawiyah Ibn Murrah, may Allaah have mercy upon him, said: “I lived
among seventy of the companions of the Prophet sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa
sallam (may Allaah exalt his mention) and had they lived among you
today, they would not recognise any of your acts except the Athaan!” He,
may Allaah have mercy upon him, also said: “If a man from our
predecessors was resurrected among you today, the only thing he would
recognise would be your Qiblah (prayer direction).”
When Haatim Al-Asamm, may Allaah have mercy upon him, was asked about
his prayer, he replied: “When the time for prayer draws near, I perform
a perfect ablution, go to where I will pray and sit there until I am
fully cognisant of what I am about to do. Then, I stand up and pray,
imagining that the Ka`bah is in front of my eyes, Paradise to my right,
Hell to my left and the Angel of Death behind me. I imagine that it is
the last prayer I will ever perform; I stand up in hope of Allaah, His
Paradise and His rewards, and in fear of Allaah’s torment in the
Hellfire. I then say the Takbeer while having full attention. I recite
the Quran calmly, bow humbly, prostrate with humility and attentiveness
and then sit on my left leg, with my left foot laid on the floor and the
right foot raised up – all the while praying with sincerity.
Afterwards, I have no certainty about whether that prayer was accepted
from me or not.”
One of our pious predecessors may Allaah have mercy upon him said: “O
son of Aadam! You need your share of this life, but your need of the
Hereafter is far greater. If you take care of your share of this life
then you will lose your share of the Hereafter, and you will very soon
lose your share of this life, too. But if you take care of your share of
the Hereafter then you will also win your full share of this life with
ease.”
Talq Ibn Habeeb, may Allaah have mercy upon him, said: “Allaah’s
rights are greater than the slave’s capacity and ability to fulfil them.
Therefore, reach every morning in a state of repentance and every night
also in a state of repentance.”
