In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

Prayer (In the Light of Hadith)

“Hazrat Abu Hurairah (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: Tell me, if there were a river at the door of one of you and he bathed in it five times every day, would any dirt remain on his body? The Companions said: No dirt would remain on him. He ﷺ said: This is the example of the five prayers; Allah removes sins through them.” (Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim)

“Hazrat Ibn Mas‘ud (may Allah be pleased with him) says: I asked the Prophet ﷺ, which deed is most beloved to Allah? He ﷺ said: Performing the prayer at its proper time. I asked: Then which? He ﷺ said: Being dutiful to parents. I asked: Then which? He ﷺ said: Striving in the path of Allah. Ibn Mas‘ud (may Allah be pleased with him) says: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ told me these things, and if I had asked more, he would have told me more.” (Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim)

“Hazrat Abu Hurairah (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: The five daily prayers, from one Friday to the next Friday, and from one Ramadan to the next Ramadan are expiation for the sins committed in between, so long as major sins are avoided.” (Sahih Muslim)

“Hazrat ‘Ubadah bin al-Samit (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: Allah has made five prayers obligatory. Whoever performs their ablution well, performs them at their proper times, and completes their bowing and humility, for him there is a promise from Allah that He will forgive him. And whoever does not do so, there is no promise from Allah for him; if He wills, He may forgive him, and if He wills, He may punish him.” (Sunan Abu Dawud, Sunan al-Nasa’i)

In the books of hadith it is mentioned that the one who neglects prayer will be resurrected with those whose engagements caused them to be negligent in prayer: if the cause was wealth and riches, he will be resurrected with Qarun; if it was authority and kingship, with Pharaoh; if it was ministry or employment, with Haman; and if it was trade, with Ubayy bin Khalaf. When he is resurrected with such people, the punishments mentioned for them in the hadith will befall him. However, because of his faith, one day he will be released from it, while they will remain in it forever. But the duration until release may be thousands of years.

In a hadith of Sahih al-Bukhari it is mentioned that after the morning prayer, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ would ask the Companions whether anyone had seen a dream during the night; if someone mentioned it, he ﷺ would interpret it. One day he ﷺ said: I saw a dream in which two persons came and took me along. Then there was a long dream. Among it, I saw a man whose head was being crushed with a stone; the stone was struck with such force that it rolled far away, then it was brought back and his head returned to its former state, and again it was struck with force. This treatment continued. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ asked his companions: Who is this? They said: This is the person who learned the Qur’an but abandoned it and used to sleep neglecting the obligatory prayer. May Allah grant us all the ability to perform the prayer. Ameen.