Sahih Muslim — hadith #1351–#1375
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Ibn 'Umar said: The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: Let the bedouin not gain upper band over you In regard to the name of your prayer, i. e. night prayer, for it is mentioned 'Isya' in the Book of Allah (i. e. the Qur'an). (The bedouin call it 'Atama because) they make delay in milling their she-camels.
'A'isha reported: The believing women used to pray the morning prayer with the Messenger of Allah and then return wrapped in their mantles. No one could recognise them.
'A'isha, the wife of the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ), reported: The believing women observed the morning prayer with the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) wrapped in their mantles. They then went back to their houses and were unrecognisable, because of the Messenger of Allah's (ﷺ) praying in the darkness before dawn.
'A'isha reported: The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) used to observe the morning prayer, and the women would go back wrapped in their mantles being unrecognisable because of the darkness before dawn. (Ishaq b. Musa) al-Ansari (one of the transmitters in this chain of narration) narrated" wrapped" (only) in his narration. (No mention was made of mantles.)
Muhammad b. 'Amr b. al-Hasan b. 'All reported: When Hajjaj came to Medina we asked Jabir b. Abdullah (about the timings of prayer as observed by the Holy Prophet). He said: The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) used to pray afternoon prayer in the midday heat; the afternoon prayer when the sun was bright; the evening prayer when the sun had completely set; and as for the night prayer, he sometimes delayed and sometimes (observed it) at earlier hours. When he found them (his Companions) assembled (at earlier hours) he (prayed) early. and when he saw them coming late, he delayed the (prayer). and the morning prayer the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) observed in the darkness before dawn.
Muhammad b. 'Amr al-Hasan b. 'All reported: Hajjaj used to delay the prayers, and so we asked Jabir b. 'Abdullah, and the rest of the hadith is the same.
Sayyar b. Salama reported: I heard my father asking Abu Barza (al- Aslami) about the prayer of Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) I (Shu'ba, one of the narrators) said: Did you hear it (from Abu Barza)? He said: 1 feel as if I am bearing you at this very time. He said: I heard my father asking about the prayer of the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) and he (Abu Barza) making this reply: He (the Holy Prophet) did not mind delaying-some (prayer) i. e. 'Isya' prayer, even up to the midnight and did not like sleeping before observing it, and talking after it. Shu'ba said: I met him subsequently and asked him (about the prayers of the Holy Prophet) and he said: He observed the noon prayer when the sun was past the meridian, he would pray the afternoon prayer, after which a person would o to the outskirts of Medina and the sun was still bright; (I forgot what he said about the evening prayer) ; I then met him on a subsequent occasion and asked him (about the prayers of the Holy Prophet; and he said: He would observe the morning prayer (at such a time) so that a man would go back and would recognise his neighbour by casting a glance at his face, and he would recite from sixty to one hundred verses in it.
Sayyar b. Salama reported: I heard Abu Barza saying that the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) did not mind some delay in the 'Isha' prayer even up to midnight and he did not like sleeping before (observing it) and talking after it. Shu'ba said: I again met him (Sayyar b. Salama) for the second time and he said: Even up to the third (part) of the night.
Abu Barza b. Aslami is reported to have said: The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) delayed the night prayer till a third of the night had passed and he did not approve of sleeping before it, and talking after it, and he used to recite in the morning prayer from one hundred to sixty verses (and completed the prayer at such hours) when we recognised the faces of one another.
Abu Dharr reported: The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said to me: How would you act when you are under the rulers who would delay the prayer beyond its prescribed time, or they would make prayer a dead thing as far as its proper time is concerned? I said: What do you command? He (the Holy Prophet) said: Observe the prayer at Its proper time, and if you can say it along with them do so, for it would be a superetogatory prayer for you. Khalaf (one of the narrators in the above hadith) has not mentioned" beyond their (prescribed) time".
Abu Dharr reported: The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said to me: O Abu Dharr, you would soon find after me rulers who would make their prayers dead. You should say prayer at its prescribed time. If you say prayer at its prescribed time that would be a supererogatory prayer for you, otherwise you saved your prayer.
Abu Dharr reported: My friend (the Holy Prophet) bade me to hear and obey (the ruler) even if he is a slave having his feet and arms cut off, and observe prayer at its prescribed time. (And further said): It you find people having observed the prayer, you in fact saved your prayer, otherwise (if you join with them) that would be a Nafl prayer for you.
Abu Dharr reported: The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) struck my thigh and said: How would you act if you survive among the people who would delay prayers beyond their (prescribed) time? He (Abu Dharr) said: What do you command (under this situation)? He (the Holy Prophet) slid: Observe prayer at its prescribed time, then go (to meet) your needs, and if the Iqama is pronounced, and you are present in the mosque, then observe prayer (along with the Jama'at).
'Abu'l-'Aliyat al-Bara reported: Ibn Ziyad delayed the prayer. 'Abdullah b. Samit came to me and I placed a chair for him and he sat in it and I made a mention of whit Ibn Ziyad had done. He bit hit lips (as a sign of extreme anger and annoyance) and struck at my thigh and said: I asked Abu Dharr as you have asked me, and he struck my thigh just as I have struck your thigh, and said: I asked the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) as you have asked me and he struck my thigh just as I have struck your thigh, and he (the Holy Prophet) said: Observe prayer at its prescribed time, and if you can say prayer along with them. do so, and do not say." I have observed prayer and so I shall not pray."
Abu Dharr reported: (The Messenger of Allah) said: How would you, or how would thou, act if you survive to live among people who defer prayer beyond the (prescribed) time? (The narrator said: Allah and His Messenger know best). whereupon he said: Observe prayer at its prescribed time, but if the Iqama is pronounced for (congregational) prayer, then observe prayer along with them. for herein is an excess of virtue.
Abu'l-'Aliyat al-Bara' reported: I said to 'Abdullah b. Samit: We say our Jumu'a prayer behind those rulers who defer the prayer. He ('Abdullah b. Samit), struck. my thigh that I felt pain and said: I asked Abu Dharr about it, he struck my thigh and said: I asked the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) about it. Upon this he said: Observe prayer at its prescribed time, and treat prayer along with them (along with those Imams who deter prayer) as Nafl. 'Abdullah said: It was narrated to me that the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) struck the thigh of Abd Dharr.
Abu Huraira reported Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) as saying: Prayer said in a congregation is twenty-five degrees more excellent than prayer said by a single person.
Abu Huraira reported Allah's Apostle (ﷺ) as saying: Prayer said in a congregation is twenty-five degrees more excellent than prayer said by a single person. He (Abu Huraira further) said: The angels of the night and the angels of the day meet together. Abu Huraira said: Recite it you like:" Surely the recital of the Qur'an at dawn is witnessed" (al-Qur'an, xvii. 78).
A hadith like this has been narrated by Abu Huraira with another chain of transmitters with a very slight change of words.
Abu Huraira reported Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) as saying: Prayer said in a congregation is equivalent to twenty-five (prayers) as compared with the prayer said by a single person.
Abu Huraira reported: The Messenger of Allah (way peace be upon him) said: Prayer along with the Imam is twenty-five times more excellent than prayer said by a single person.
Ibn Umar reported Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) assaying: Prayer said in a congregation is twenty-seven degrees more excellent than prayer said by a single person.
Ibn 'Umar reported Allah's Apostle (ﷺ) as saying: The prayer of a person in congregation is twenty-seven times in excess to the prayer said alone.
Ibn Numair reported it on the authority of his father (a preference of) more than twenty (degrees) and Abu Bakr in his narration (has narrated it) twenty- seven degrees.
Ibn 'Umar reported from the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) as some and twenty (degrees).