Chapter: The Merit of the Congregational Prayer
1064 – Ibn ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with them both) reported that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “Prayer in congregation is superior to a man’s prayer alone by twenty-seven degrees.” Agreed upon.
1065 – Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “A man’s prayer in congregation exceeds his prayer in his house or in his marketplace by twenty-five times. When he performs ablution and perfects it, then goes out to the mosque for no reason other than the prayer, every step he takes raises him one degree and removes one sin. After he prays, the angels continue to invoke blessings upon him so long as he remains in his place of prayer and has not broken his ablution, saying, ‘O Allah, bless him; O Allah, have mercy on him.’ He is counted as being in prayer so long as he is waiting for the next prayer.” Agreed upon, and this is al-Bukhārī’s wording.
[Commentary]
Al-Nawawī (d. 676 AH) writes in his Riyāḍ al-Ṣāliḥīn, under the heading “The Virtue of the Congregational Prayer,” that his purpose is to clarify the excellence of praying with the congregation. The scholars are unanimously agreed that congregational prayer ranks among the best acts of worship and the noblest forms of obedience. They have, however, differed on whether it is merely recommended (sunnah), obligatory, or a condition for the validity of the prayer, resulting in three opinions:
- That it is sunnah: whoever performs it is rewarded, and whoever neglects it bears no sin.