The excellence of offering the prayer in the mosque:
Narrated Abu Huraira: The Prophet said, "The prayer offered in congregation is
twenty five times more superior (in reward) to the prayer offered alone in
one's house or in a business center, because if one performs ablution and does
it perfectly, and then proceeds to the mosque with the sole intention of
praying, then for each step which he takes towards the mosque, Allah upgrades
him a degree in reward and (forgives) crosses out one sin till he enters the
mosque. When he enters the mosque he is considered in prayer as long as he is
waiting for the prayer and the angels keep on asking for Allah's forgiveness
for him and they keep on saying: 'O Allah! Be Merciful to him, O Allah! Forgive
him, as long as he keeps on sitting at his praying place and does not pass
wind. (Sahih Bukhari, Book Number 8, Hadith Number 466)
Keep your heart attached to the
mosque
Narrated Abu Huraira: The Prophet said, "Allah will give shade, to seven, on
the Day when there will be no shade but His. (These seven persons are) a just
ruler, a youth who has been brought up in the worship of Allah (i.e. worships
Allah sincerely from childhood), a man whose heart is attached to the mosques
(i.e. to pray the compulsory prayers in the mosque in congregation), two
persons who love each other only for Allah's sake and they meet and part in
Allah's cause only, a man who refuses the call of a charming woman of noble
birth for illicit intercourse with her and says: I am afraid of Allah, a man
who gives charitable gifts so secretly that his left hand does not know what
his right hand has given (i.e. nobody knows how much he has given in charity),
and a person who remembers Allah in seclusion and his eyes are then flooded
with tears." (Sahih Bukhari, Book Number 11, Hadith Number 629)
After
entering the mosque:
Narrated Abu Qatada Al-Aslami: Allah's Apostle said, "If anyone of you enters a
mosque, he should pray two Rakat before sitting." (Sahih Bukhari, Book Number
8, Hadith Number 435)
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