The Second Hadith
Al-Nuʿmān ibn Bashīr ⦗Allah be pleased with them both⦘ said, “I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ declare, ‘Straighten your rows, or Allah will most certainly cause your faces to differ.’” Agreed upon.
Muslim’s wording is: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to arrange our rows as though he were setting arrow-shafts in line. When he saw that we had understood what he wanted, he once came out, stood up, and was about to pronounce the opening takbīr. Then he noticed a man whose chest was protruding forward and said, ‘Servants of Allah, straighten your rows, or Allah will most certainly cause your faces to differ.’”
Unfamiliar terms
- “ʿAqalnā” – with an open qāf – means “we understood” his command to straighten the rows. Anyone who reads it as “ʿafalnā” has misread the word.
- “Latusun”: initial tāʾ with ḍammah, sīn with fatḥah, a fully vocalised wāw, and a doubled nūn—the heavy nūn of emphasis; the opening lām is the lām of an oath.
- “Aw” (or): used here to set out two unavoidable alternatives—one of them will certainly take place.
- “As though he were aligning arrow-shafts”: the qadāḥ are wooden arrow-shafts that are carefully carved and smoothed; the comparison means that the worshippers stood in a single, perfectly straight line.
Overall meaning
This narration contains a stern warning for those who fail to keep their rows straight in prayer. The Prophet ﷺ stressed that if the lines are not aligned, Allah will cause the faces of those in crooked rows to diverge.
When some people advance ahead of the line, the one who steps forward may fall into pride and self-importance, while those left behind respond with hatred and resentment. Hearts then become divided, and that inner discord is reflected on their faces. Estrangement and disunity ensue, defeating the very purpose of congregational prayer, which is love and mutual solidarity. The principle at work is that “the recompense corresponds to the deed.”
The Prophet ﷺ trained his Companions with both words and actions; he would physically adjust their rows with his own hands. He kept doing this until he believed they had learned, yet on one occasion he noticed a single man’s chest jutting out from the line, whereupon he became angry and said, “Straighten your rows, or Allah will cause your faces to differ.”