He then said, “If he performs ablution, his prayer will be accepted”—meaning, if he prays. In some narrations of Sahīh al-Bukhārī, the wording is: “If he performs ablution and prays, his prayer will be accepted.” This encourages earnestness in obedience, energetic devotion to worship, and the abandonment of lethargy, indolence, and laziness. Imam al-Bukhārī—may Allah have mercy on him—included this hadith in the Book of Tahajjud in his Sahīh, under the chapter entitled “The Virtue of One Who Awakens at Night and Prays.”

That is, whoever prays at that time and hastens to pray in that state has a prayer especially likely to be accepted; acceptance in this situation may be hoped for more than at other times.

In his commentary on this hadith, al-Hāfiz Ibn Hajar—may Allah have mercy on him—related a subtle benefit concerning careful observance of this remembrance from Abū Abd Allah al-Firabrī, the narrator from al-Bukhārī. He said, “I recited this remembrance when I awoke, then went back to sleep. Someone then came to me [that is, in a dream] and recited: ‘They were guided to good speech, and they were guided to the path of the Praiseworthy.’”1.

There is no doubt that steadfast observance of this remembrance is a form of guidance to good speech and to the path of the Praiseworthy. We ask Allah, the Most Generous, for His bounty.