- Allah erases one of his sins—and that is a tremendous favor.
These two rewards continue to accrue “until he enters the mosque.” Once he has entered, offered whatever units of prayer are prescribed, and then sits waiting for the obligatory prayer, “he is regarded as being in prayer for as long as he is waiting for it.” This, too, is an immense blessing: even if you remain seated for a long time after performing the two-rakʿah greeting of the mosque—or any voluntary prayer Allāh enables you to offer—you are still credited with the reward of formal prayer.
There is, moreover, a fourth bounty: the angels invoke blessings upon him for as long as he stays in the spot where he prayed. They say, “O Allāh, bless him; O Allāh, forgive him; O Allāh, have mercy on him; O Allāh, turn toward him in acceptance.” Such grace is granted to the one who attends with this intention and performs these acts.
The point of evidence in the hadith lies in the Prophet’s words: “Then he left his house for the mosque, driven by nothing but the prayer.” This shows that intention is essential for obtaining this magnificent reward.
If a person leaves his home without intending the prayer—he goes, for example, to his shop, and when the adhān is called he proceeds to the mosque—he is not granted the same reward, for it is reserved for the one whose only motive for leaving home is the prayer itself.
Still, he may be rewarded from the moment he sets out from his shop, or from his place of buying and selling, until he reaches the mosque, provided he departed in a state of ritual purity. And Allāh is the One who grants success.