I offered the `Id prayer with Allah's Apostle, Abu Bakr, `Umar and `Uthman and all of them offered the prayer before delivering the Khutba.

I asked the Prophet about one's looking here and there during the prayer. He replied, "It is what Satan steals from the prayer of any one of you."

Yahya related to me from Malik from Abu Hazim ibn Dinar that Sahl ibn Sad as-Saidi said, "There are two times when the gates of heaven are opened, and few who make supplication have it returned to them unanswered. They are at the timeof the adhan, and in a rank of people fighting in the way of Allah."

Malik was asked whether the adhan on the day of jumua was called before the time had come for the prayer and he said, "It is not called until after the sun has passed the meridian."

Malik was asked about doubling the adhan and the iqama, and at what point people had to stand when the iqama for the prayer was called. He said, "I have heard nothing about the adhan and iqama except what I have seen people do. As for the iqama, it is not doubled. That is what the people of knowledge in our region continue to do. As for people standing up when the iqama for the prayer is called, I have not heard of any definite point at which it is begun, and I consider it rather to be according to people's (individual) capacity, for some people are heavy and some are light, and they are not able to be as one man ."

Malik was asked about a gathering of people who wished to do the prescribed prayer calling the iqama and not the adhan, and he said, "lt is enough for them. The adhan is only obligatory in mosques where the prayer is said in congregation."

Malik was asked about the muadhdhin saying "Peace be upon you" to the imam and calling him to the prayer, and he was asked who was the first person to whom such a greeting was made. He replied, "I have not heard that this greeting occurred in the first community."

Yahya said that Malik was asked whether a muadhdhin who called the people to prayer and then waited to see if anyone would come and no one did, so he said the iqama and did the prayer by himself and then people came after he had finished, should repeat the prayer with them. Malik said, "He does not repeat the prayer, and whoever comes after he has finished should do the prayer by himself."

Yahya said that Malik was asked about a muadhdhin who called the adhan for a group of people, did voluntary prayers, and then the group of people wanted to do the prayer with some one else saying the iqama. He said, "There is no harm in that. His iqama or somebody else's are the same."

Yahya said that Malik said, "The subh prayer is still called before dawn. As for the other prayers, we believe that they should only be called after the time has started."

After me you will come under rulers who will be detained from saying prayer at its proper time by (their) works until its time has run out, so offer prayer at its proper time. A man asked him: Messenger of Allah, may I offer prayer with them? He replied: Yes, if you wish (to do so).

Sufyan (another narrator through a different chain)said: May I offer prayer with them if I get it with them? He said: Yes, if you wish to do so.

A man led the people in prayer. He spat towards qiblah while the Messenger of Allah (saws) was looking at him. The Messenger of Allah said to the people when he finished his prayer: He should not lead you in prayer (henceforth).

Thenceforth he intended to lead them in prayer, but they forbade him and informed him of the prohibition of the Messenger of Allah (saws). He mentioned it to the Messenger of Allah (saws) who said to him: Yes.

The narrator said: I think he (the Prophet) said: You did harm to Allah and His Apostle.

The bowing, the prostration the sitting in between the two prostrations and the standing after the bowing of the Prophet but not qiyam (standing in the prayer) and qu`ud (sitting in the prayer) used to be approximately equal (in duration).

Prayer in congregation is equivalent to twenty-five prayers (offered alone). If he prays in a jungle, and performs its bowing and prostrations perfectly, it becomes equivalent to fifty prayers (in respect of reward).

Abu Dawud said: 'Abd al-Walid b. Ziyad narrated in his version of this tradition: "Prayer said by a single person in a jungle is more excellent by multiplied degrees than prayer said in congregation."

There is an Idraj in its last part.

The Messenger of Allah (saws) saw a person praying after the congregational prayer at dawn was over. The Messenger of Allah (saws) said: There are two rak'ahs of the dawn prayer (i.e. the prescribed rak'ahs). The man replied: I did not pray the two rak'ahs before the dawn prayer. Hence I offered them now. The Messenger of Allah (saws) kept silent.

Yahya related to me from Malik that he heard that a beggar asked A'isha, the wife of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, for something while she was fasting and there was only a loaf of bread in her house. She said to her female mawla, "Give it to him." The mawla protested, "You will not have anything to break your fast with." A'isha repeated, "Give it to him," so she did so. When evening came, the people of a house or a man who did not usually give to them, gave them a sheep and some food to go with it. A'isha, umm al-muminin, called her mawla and said, "Eat from this. This is better than your loaf of bread."

I of all the people know best this verse of Al-Hijab. When Allah's Apostle married Zainab bint Jahsh she was with him in the house and he prepared a meal and invited the people (to it). They sat down (after finishing their meal) and started chatting. So the Prophet went out and then returned several times while they were still sitting and talking. So Allah revealed the Verse: 'O you who believe! Enter not the Prophet's houses until leave is given to you for a meal, (and then) not (so early as) to wait for its preparation .....ask them from behind a screen.' (33.53) So the screen was set up and the people went away.

l entered a house in Medina with Abu Huraira, and he saw a man making pictures at the top of the house. Abu Huraira said, "I heard Allah's Apostle saying that Allah said, 'Who would be more unjust than the one who tries to create the like of My creatures? Let them create a grain: let them create a gnat.' "Abu Huraira then asked for a water container and washed his arms up to his armpits. I said, "0 Abu i Huraira! Is this something you have heard I from Allah's Apostle?" He said, "The limit for ablution is up to the place where the ornaments will reach on the Day of Resurrection.'

The Prophet said, "Allah has made Mecca a sanctuary (sacred place) and it was a sanctuary before me and will be so after me. It was made legal for me (to fight in it) for a few hours of the day. None is allowed to uproot its thorny shrubs or to cut its trees or to chase its game or to pick up its fallen things except by a person who announces it publicly." On that Al-Abbas said (to the Prophet), "Except Al- Idhkhir for our goldsmiths and for our graves." And so the Prophet added, "Except Al-Idhkhir. " And Abu Huraira narrated that the Prophet said, "Except Al-Idhkhir for our graves and houses." And Ibn `Abbas said, "For their goldsmiths and houses."

An imam of ours, whose kunyah (surname) was AbuRimthah, led us in prayer and said: I prayed this prayer, or one like it, with the Prophet (saws). AbuBakr and Umar were standing in the front row on his right and there was a man who had been present at the first takbir in the prayer. The Prophet of Allah (saws) offered the prayer, then gave the salutation to his right and his left so that we saw the whiteness of his cheeks, then turned away as AbuRimthah (meaning himself) had done.

The man who has been present with him at the first takbir in the prayer then got up to pray another prayer, whereupon Umar leaped up and, seizing him by the shoulders, shook him and said: Sit down, for the People of the Book perished for no other reason than that there was no interval between their prayers.

The Prophet (saws) raised his eyes and said: Allah has made you say what is right, son of al-Khattab.

Abu Dawud said: Sometimes the name of Abu Umayyah is narrated instead of Abu Rimthah.

The last words which the Messenger of Allah (saws) spoke were: Prayer, prayer; fear Allah about those whom your right hands possess.

Allah's Apostle used to offer the Fajr prayer and some believing women covered with their veiling sheets used to attend the Fajr prayer with him and then they would return to their homes unrecognized .

Prophet said (to two persons), "Whenever the prayer time becomes due, you should pronounce Adhan and then Iqama and the older of you should lead the prayer."

I asked Allah's Apostle about looking hither and thither in prayer. He replied, "It is a way of stealing by which Satan takes away (a portion) from the prayer of a person."

My father said, "The Prophet used to prolong the first rak`a of the Zuhr prayer and shorten the second one and used to do the same in the Fajr prayer."

The first Jumua prayer which was offered after a Jumua prayer offered at the mosque of Allah's Apostle took place in the mosque of the tribe of `Abdul Qais at Jawathi in Bahrain.

The Messenger of Allah (saws) said: When any of you breaks wind during the prayer, he should turn away and perform ablution and repeat the prayer.

Allah's Apostle went to establish peace among Bani `Amr bin `Auf. In the meantime the time of prayer was due and the Mu'adh-dhin went to Abu Bakr and said, "Will you lead the prayer, so that I may pronounce the Iqama?" Abu Bakr replied in the affirmative and led the prayer. Allah's Apostle came while the people were still praying and he entered the rows of the praying people till he stood in the (first row). The people clapped their hands. Abu Bakr never glanced sideways in his prayer but when the people continued clapping, Abu Bakr looked and saw Allah's Apostle. Allah's Apostle beckoned him to stay at his place. Abu Bakr raised his hands and thanked Allah for that order of Allah's Apostle and then he retreated till he reached the first row. Allah's Apostle went forward and led the prayer. When Allah's Apostle finished the prayer, he said, "O Abu Bakr! What prevented you from staying when I ordered you to do so?" Abu Bakr replied, "How can Ibn Abi Quhafa (Abu Bakr) dare to lead the prayer in the presence of Allah's Apostle?" Then Allah's Apostle said, "Why did you clap so much? If something happens to anyone during his prayer he should say Subhan Allah. If he says so he will be attended to, for clapping is for women."

Abu Dawud said: It has been narrated by Ibn 'Umar and Anas b. Malik that she should take bath at the time of the Zuhr prayer (being valid) until the next Zuhr prayer. This tradition has also been transmuted by Dawud and 'Asim from al-Sha'bi from his wife from Qumair on the authority of 'Aishah, except that the version of Dawud has the words: "every day," and the version of 'Asim has the words: "at the time of Zuhr prayer". This is the view of Salim b. 'Abd Allah, al-Hassan, and 'Ata.

Abu Dawud said: Malik said: I think that the tradition narrated by Ibn a;-Musayyab must contain the words: "from one purification to another". But it was misunderstood and the people changed it to: "for one Zuhr prayer to another".

It has also been reported by Miswar b. 'Abd al-Malik b. Sa'id b. 'Abd al-Rahman b. Yarbu', saying: "from one purification to another," but the people changed it to: "from one zuhr to another."

When the Prophet, became ill in his fatal illness, Someone came to inform him about the prayer, and the Prophet told him to tell Abu Bakr to lead the people in the prayer. I said, "Abu Bakr is a softhearted man and if he stands for the prayer in your place, he would weep and would not be able to recite the Qur'an." The Prophet said, "Tell Abu Bakr to lead the prayer." I said the same as before. He (repeated the same order and) on the third or the fourth time he said, "You are the companions of Joseph. Tell Abu Bakr to lead the prayer." So Abu Bakr led the prayer and meanwhile the Prophet felt better and came out with the help of two men; as if I see him just now dragging his feet on the ground. When Abu Bakr saw him, he tried to retreat but the Prophet beckoned him to carry on. Abu Bakr retreated a bit and the Prophet sat on his (left) side. Abu Bakr was repeating the Takbir (Allahu Akbar) of Allah's Apostle for the people to hear.

When the illness of the Messenger of Allah (saws) became serious while I was with him among a group of people, Bilal called him for prayer. He said: Ask someone to lead the people in prayer. So Abdullah ibn Zam'ah went out and found that Umar was present among the people and AbuBakr was not there. I said: Umar, get up and lead the people in prayer. So he came forward and uttered "Allah is Most Great". When the Messenger of Allah (saws) heard his voice, as Umar had a loud voice, he said: Where is AbuBakr? Allah does not allow that, and the Muslims too; Allah does not allow that, and the Muslims too. So he sent for AbuBakr. He came after Umar had led the people in that prayer. He then led the people in prayer.

Abu Barza said, "The Prophet used to offer the Fajr (prayer) when one could recognize the person sitting by him (after the prayer) and he used to recite between 60 to 100 Ayat (verses) of the Qur'an. He used to offer the Zuhr prayer as soon as the sun declined (at noon) and the `Asr at a time when a man might go and return from the farthest place in Medina and find the sun still hot. (The sub-narrator forgot what was said about the Maghrib). He did not mind delaying the `Isha prayer to one third of the night or the middle of the night."