appoint him as his deputy in Medina, and he would give the call to prayer for the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace.

Fourth, this is also evidence that congregational prayer is obligatory. It is established in Sahīh Muslim and elsewhere that ‘Abdullāh ibn Mas‘ūd said:

“Whoever wishes to meet Allah tomorrow as a Muslim should perform these five prayers where the call to them is made. Allah has prescribed for His Prophet the ways of guidance, and performing these five prayers in the mosques where the call to them is made is among the ways of guidance. If you were to pray in your homes as this man who stays away prays in his home, you would abandon the way of your Prophet; and if you abandoned the way of your Prophet, you would go astray. I remember a time when none of us would stay away from them except a hypocrite whose hypocrisy was known. Indeed, a man would be brought in, supported between two men, until he was made to stand in the row.”

‘Abdullāh ibn Mas‘ūd thus stated that no one would stay away from them except a hypocrite whose hypocrisy was known. This demonstrates that their obligatory nature was firmly established among the believers, and they could only have learned this from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. Had they regarded congregational prayer as merely recommended, like night prayer, the voluntary prayers accompanying the obligatory prayers, the midmorning prayer, and the like, some of them would have performed it and others would not, while remaining believers. Thus, the Bedouin said to him:

“By Allah, I will neither add to that nor subtract from it.”

He replied, “He will prosper if he is truthful.”

It is well known that any duty from which none but a hypocrite would stay away was obligatory upon every individual, as was their departure for the expedition to Tabūk, for the Prophet