Lessons derived from the ḥadīth:

1 – Because the hypocrites perform their acts of worship only to impress people and seek no share of Allah’s Face, the prayer feels onerous to them. The two prayers they find heaviest are those in which people do not see them—ʿIshāʾ and Fajr—for they are offered in darkness, before the mosques are lit.

2 – These two prayers also occur at times of rest, ease, and sleep. No one rouses himself for them except the person whose heart contains a restraining force of faith in Allah that disturbs and urges him until he performs them. One whose heart is empty of faith—the hypocrite above all—will not bestir himself for either prayer.

3 – The reward attached to these two prayers is tremendous and their status exalted. If those who stay behind only knew what Allah has prepared for the one who performs them in congregation, they would come to them even if they had to crawl on their knees like a small child.

4 – The ḥadīth constitutes proof for the obligation of praying in congregation in the mosque, for the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) did not grant a concession even to a blind man who had no guide to bring him to the mosque. How, then, for the sighted person who is able?

5 – It demonstrates the blessing of faith in Allah and hope for His reward: faith lightens acts of obedience, endears them to the believer, and makes them easy and manageable. By contrast, the curse of hypocrisy—Allah’s protection is sought—casts darkness upon its possessor, blackens his heart, blinds his insight, and makes him forget himself until acts of devotion weigh heavily upon him and he comes to loathe worship. Then the destroyer of pleasures and separator of companions—death—comes upon him while he remains in heedlessness and misguidance.

6 – Shaykh al-Islām said: “The ḥadīth of the blind man is an explicit text establishing the obligation of the congregational prayer, and the blind man was Ibn Umm Maktūm, as some reports state plainly.” Ibn ʿAbbās was asked about a man who prays at night yet does not attend the congregation, and he said: “He is