Aslam

The Prophet said: Compulsory prayer is like a scale. He who measures out in full takes full. The Prophet said : If two men of my followers stand in prayer, it seems that their prostrations are the same but the spirit of their prayer is like the distance of the heaven and earth. He hinted at their God-fear. The Prophet said :
God will not look to a man on the Resurection Day who does not make his backbone erect between his bow and prostration. The Prophet said : If a man turns his face towards another direction in prayer, God will turn his face in to that of an ass. The Prophet said : If a man says prayer at its appointed time, establishes ablution, makes his bow and prostration perfect and has got God fear, it will become bright and rise upwards and say : May God guard you as you have guarded me. If a man does not pray at its appointed time, does not make ablution well and does not make perfect his ruku and prostration and God fear, it will become dark and rise upwards and say : May God destroy you as you have destroyed me. God will keep it folded as old cloth is kept folded. The Prophet said : The word thief applies to one who steals in prayer.

EXCELLENCE OF PRAYING IN CONGERGATION

The Prophet said : The rewards of a prayer in congregation is twenty seven times more than the prayer said alone. The Prophet did not see once some persons joining prayer in congregation and said : I wished that I should give order to some one to lead the prayer and oppose those who have not joined in prayer and burn their houses. In another narration : I oppose those persons who do not pray in congregation and order that their houses should be burnt with fuel. If a man among them had known what rewards there are in night prayer, he would have surely been present at night prayer. There is in Hadis : He who remains at night prayer. There is in Hadis : He who remains at night prayer prayed as it were half the night. He who remains present in the morning prayer prayed as it were the whole night. The Prophet said : He who prays a prayer in congregation fills up his neck with divine service. Hazrat Sayeed-b-Musayyeb said : I reached the mosque before Azan for 20 years consequitively. The sage Waseh said : I want three things in the world (1) such a brother who will keep me straight if I become crooked, (2) such

136 THE BOOK OF WORSHIP Vol-I

livelihood as can be earned without begging and (3) such a prayer in congregation of which the faults are forgiven to me and excellence is written for me. Hazrat Ibn Abbas said : He who does not respond to Azan does not hope for good and no good is expected from him. The Prophet said : If a man prays in congregation for forty days and does and lose even Takbir, God writes for him two salvations — (1) one salvation from hypocrisy and another from Hell.