• current selection in your language

START OF PRAYER

711

“When you make up your mind to join the prayer, you are already in the prayer.”

Muslim.

BENEFITS OF PRAYING IN THE MOSQUE

The prayer of a man offered in congregation is more than twenty degrees greater in merit than his prayer offered in his market-place or in his home. Therefore, when one of them makes a fine ablution and comes to the mosque with no desire except for the prayer, and nothing motivated him except the prayer, his degree is raised for every step he took and a sin is removed up until he enters the mosque. When he enters the mosque, he is considered to be in a state of prayer as long as the prayer keeps him until its time; and the angels continue to pray for him as long as he remains in his place of prayer, and they supplicate saying: 'O Allah have mercy on him, O Allah, forgive him, O Allah accept his repentance,' for as long as he does no harm there, and so long as he does not loose his state of purity.

Bukhari and Muslim with a chain up to Abu Hurairah related: The Messenger of Allah, praise and peace be upon him, said this.

THE VIRTUE OF WAITING FOR THE PRAYER