Points Derived from the ḥadith
1 – This ḥadith makes clear the virtue of congregational prayer: it surpasses the prayer of the person who prays alone by twenty-seven degrees. In other words, through the congregational prayer he earns the reward of the solitary prayer twenty-seven times over.

2 – Only two kinds of people are content with a single degree when many degrees are on offer: either someone who does not believe in that magnificent blessing, or a fool who fails to recognise the way of guidance and truly profitable trade.

3 – The “solitary” meant here is the one who prays alone in his house without an excuse. A person with a valid excuse receives his full reward. This ḥadith is clarified by others, such as: “If the servant falls ill or travels, there is recorded for him whatever he used to do while healthy and resident” (al-Bukhārī 2996).

4 – Congregational prayer is not a condition for the validity of the prayer, for the lone prayer is valid even though sin attaches to abandoning the congregation without an excuse. The evidence for its validity is that it still carries reward or merit: the phrase “more excellent” (afḍal) is a comparative form indicating that two things share a quality while one exceeds the other in it. Thus both the solitary worshipper and the one who prays with the congregation perform the same act, but the congregational worshipper surpasses the solitary one in reward and degrees. Al-Muwaffaq said, “We know of no one who has required one who prayed alone to repeat the prayer.”

5 – Righteous deeds differ in rank according to the manner in which they are performed. Al-Ṭayyibī said: In Abū Hurayrah’s narration the reward is “by twenty-five,” whereas in Ibn ʿUmar’s it is “by twenty-seven.” The reconciliation is that the higher number was revealed after the lower, for Allah increases His servants out of His bounty and never diminishes what He has promised them. At first the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) announced to the believers the initial degree of its excellence; later, when he saw that Allah Most High had bestowed even more upon him and his community, he conveyed that glad tiding and urged them toward congregational prayer. What we have mentioned is the governing principle in—