harbour any pride that would keep them from worshipping Him, nor do they ever grow weary. They glorify Him night and day, never flagging. Ponder His statement, “They glorify Him night and day” – He did not say “in the night and the day,” for the entire span of time is filled with their glorification.

One of their acts of worship in the presence of their Lord is that they stand in ranks before Allah, as He, the Exalted, says: “Indeed, it is we who stand arrayed; indeed, it is we who glorify.” ⦗37:165-166⦘. Concerning how they line up, the Prophet ﷺ said: “They complete the first row and then the next, and they stand close together.”

Accordingly, when we line up before Allah in our prayer, we should emulate the angels: complete the first row and then the next, and stand shoulder-to-shoulder. Because this practice is the sunnah of the angels before Allah – and because the Prophet ﷺ urged us to do it – people ought to vie with one another for it. The Prophet ﷺ said in the hadith of Abu Hurayrah: “If people only knew the reward contained in the call to prayer and in the first row, and then found no means of attaining them except by drawing lots, they would certainly draw lots.”

This hadith demonstrates the merit of the first row, the superiority of standing close together in the rows, and the requirement to complete the first row before beginning the next. These are three matters that demand attention:

1 – One must not stand in a new row until the row in front of it has been completed.

2 – In the prayer rows they should stand tightly packed, each person placing his ankle against his brother’s ankle and his shoulder against his brother’s shoulder, so that the row is fully compact; for if they do not stand close together, satans will slip