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40 Prayers at the Prophet’s Mosque: Is there any virtue in it?

Answered as per Shafi'i Fiqh by Qibla.com

Answered by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

40 Prayers at the Prophet’s Mosque: Is there any virtue in it?

Answer:
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful and Compassionate. May His blessings and peace be on His Beloved Prophet, the best of creation, and his family, companions, and followers

There is established virtue in seeking to perform 40 prayers at the Mosque of the Beloved of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), and it has been from the practice of the righteous throughout the ages.

It is an affirmation of one’s love for the Best of Creation (peace and blessings be upon him), a reminder of his guidance and example, and of the tremendous favor of Allah upon humanity in the sending of the Light of Guidance that took those who believed from the manifold darknesses of confusion to the light of faith and spiritual realization—for this tremendous favor was manifest at and around the Prophet’s Noble Mosque. May Allah grant us all the honor of visiting the Noble Mosque of the Beloved Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace).

As Shaykh Nur al-Din `Itr expressed it, “True faith and following entail that the follower long and yearn to visit the one they follow…” [`Itr, al-Hajj wa’l `Umra, 240]

There is in fact an established hadith regarding this:

Anas ibn Malik (Allah be pleased with him) related that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said,

“Whoever performs 40 prayers at my mosque, without missing a prayer, shall have freedom from the Fire written for him, as well as freedom from punishment, and freedom from hypocrisy.”

Imam Haythami stated in his Majma` al-Zawa’id: Tirmidhi related a part of it. This hadith was (fully) related by Ahmad, and Tabarani in his Awsat. Its narrators are reliable. [Haythami, Majma` al-Zawa’id, 4.8]

Imam Mundhiri stated in his al-Targhib wa’l Tarhib [2.139] that the narrators in Ahmad’s chain of narration are from the narrators of the rigorously authentic (sahih) collections [f: Bukhari and Muslim].

Some other hadith masters also deemed the hadith to be sound. Some others disagreed, but as Shaykh Abd Allah al-Faqih (a Salafi hadith scholar and faqih) stated,

“This matter is related to virtuous deeds. Even if we were to state that this hadith is weak, it is widespread practice to act on such narrations. It is the position of Ahmad and many other scholars to do so. They stated that: if a particular action is legislated by recognized legal proofs, and then there are hadiths related regarding it that are not established lies, then such promised reward could well be true and it would not be proper to have shortcomings in performing such acts.”

There is actually little difference of opinion to note that it is permitted to act on weak hadiths in matters related to virtuous deeds. See:

Isn’t acting on weak hadiths an innovation? [Shaykh Amjad Rasheed, audio and text translation]

Also: Please go to www.SunniPath.com, and search for weak hadiths for other related answers.

And Allah alone gives success.

Faraz Rabbani.

عن أنس بن مالك عن النبي e قال من صلى في مسجدي أربعين صلاة لا تفوته صلاة كتب له براءة من النار وبراءة من العذاب وبريء من النفاق قلت روى الترمذي بعضه رواه أحمد والطبراني في الأوسط ورجاله ثقات باب فيمن ورد المدينة ولم يصل في المسجد (مجمع الزوائد ج:4 ص:8 ) رواه أحمد ورواته رواة الصحيح والطبراني في الأوسط وهو عند الترمذي بغير هذا اللفظ (الترغيب والترهيب ج:2 ص:139) وعلى كل ، فهذه المسألة من فضائل الأعمال ، وعلى افتراض أنه ضعيف فإن العمل بمثله في الفضائل شائع ، كما هو مذهب أحمد ، وجماعة من العلماء ، حيث قالوا: إن العمل إذا علم أنه مشروع بدليل شرعي ، وروي في فضله حديث لا يعلم أنه كذب ، جاز أن يكون الثواب حقاً ، فلا ينبغي التفريط في العمل. والله أعلم. المفتـــي: مركز الفتوى بإشراف د.عبدالله الفقيه

 

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