Faraj ibn Fadālah, from ‘Alī ibn Abī Talhah, from Ibn Mas‘ūd, who used to say:
“Set out early for Friday prayers in this world, for Allah appears before the people of Paradise every Friday on a mound of white camphor. Their nearness to Him will correspond to how early they set out for Friday prayer in this world.”
What Ibn Mas‘ūd reported is something known only to a prophet or someone who received it from a prophet. This establishes that Ibn Mas‘ūd received it from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. He cannot have received it from the People of the Book, for several reasons:
(First): The Companions were forbidden to affirm the truth of what the People of the Book told them. It is therefore inconceivable that Ibn Mas‘ūd—may Allah be pleased with him—would relate something reported by the Jews as religious instruction and base a ruling upon it.
(Second): Ibn Mas‘ūd—may Allah be pleased with him—in particular was among the Companions most vehement in censuring those who took reports from the People of the Book. May Allah be pleased with them all.
(Third): Friday prayer was prescribed only for us, and attending it early is prescribed only in our revealed law. It is therefore unlikely that such a report was received from earlier prophets. It is also unlikely that a Jew would relate such a virtue of this community, when they are described as concealing knowledge, withholding it, and envying this community.
Ibn Mājah also narrated it in his Sunan through another route, tracing it back to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, from ‘Alqamah, who said:
“I went with ‘Abd Allāh ibn Mas‘ūd to Friday prayer, and he found that three men had arrived before him. He said: ‘The fourth of four! Yet the fourth of four is not far behind. I heard the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him,