Allah 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 Allah have mercy upon him) was to be found in the mosque before the Athaan
(call to prayer) was made. `Umar may Allah be pleased with him became
unconscious after he was stabbed, and according to Al-Miswar Ibn Makhramah may Allah 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 Allah that there is no share of Islam for whoever abandons the prayer." He then performed the prayer
while his wound was bleeding.
After Ar-Rabee` Ibn Khaytham (may Allah have mercy upon him)
became partially paralyzed, 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:
"Honoring 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 Allah 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 Allah 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 Allah with his heart."
Hammaad Ibn Salamah (may Allah 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 Allah 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 Allah 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 Allah 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 Allah have mercy upon him) said:
"Whenever I went out in the morning, I would visit (my aunt) `Aa'ishah (may Allah 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 Allah (which means): "So Allah conferred favor 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 Allah.'"
Maymoon Ibn Hayyaan (may Allah 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 Allah 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 Allah 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 Allah 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 Allah 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 Allah have mercy upon him) said:
"I lived among seventy of the companions of the Prophet sallallaahu
`alayhi wa sallam ( may Allah exalt his mention ) and had they lived among you
today, they would not recognize any of your acts except the Athaan!" He
(may Allah have mercy upon him) also said: "If a man from our predecessors
was resurrected among you today, the only thing he would recognize would be
your Qiblah (prayer direction)."
When Haatim Al-Asamm (may Allah 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 cognizant 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 Allah, His Paradise and His rewards, and
in fear of Allah'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 Allah have mercy upon him
said: "O son of Adam! 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 fulfill them. Therefore, reach every morning in a state of repentance and every
night also in a state of repentance."
Source: Establish the prayer and the prize is Paradise by Abdul Malik Al-Qasim
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