He thus linked hajr (going early) with making an early start. For them, rawāh means going or proceeding. They say rāha al-qawm (the people set off) when people move briskly and depart, whatever the time.

By his words, may Allah bless him and grant him peace,

“If people knew the reward of going early to prayer, they would race to do so,”

he meant going early to all the prayers: proceeding to them at the beginning of their appointed times. Al-Azharī said: The other Arabs use hajjara of a man who goes out in the midday heat. Abū ʿUbayd also narrated from Abū Zayd: They use hajjara of a man who goes out in the midday heat. He said: This is the middle of the day.

Al-Azharī then said: Al-Mundhirī (1) recited to me, among the reports he transmitted on the authority of Thaʿlab from Ibn al-Aʿrābī in his Nawādir (Rare Expressions): Jiʿthina (2) ibn Jawwās al-Rabaʿī said of his she-camel:

Do you remember my oath and vow,
those days when you were on the road of al-Jafr (3),
when you were spirited and swift of stride—
a vow binding upon me if you fail to rise bearing a load (4)
of forty, duly measured
by the Khālidī measure, not by the sāʿ measure of Hajr (5),