Zaid b. Thabit reported God s Messenger as saying, “A man’s prayer in his house is more excellent than his prayer in this mosque of mine, except for the prescribed prayer."
I missed God’s Messengerone night and found him at al-Baqi‘. He said, “Were you afraid that God and His Messenger would act wrongly towards you?" I replied, “Messenger of God, I thought you had gone to one of your wives." He said, “On the middle night of Sha'ban God most high descends to the lowest heaven and forgives more sins than the hairs of the goats of Kalb."
Tirmidhi and Ibn Majah transmitted it, and Razin added, “for those who deserve hell."Tirmidhi said, “I heard Muhammad (i.e., Bukhari) declare that this tradition is weak."
I went out one night to the mosque with ‘Umar b. al-Khattab and we saw the people in sections separate from one another, one man praying by himself, and another followed by a group; so ‘Umar said, “If I collected these people behind one reciter it would be better." He then made up his mind and collected them with Ubayy b. Ka‘b as imam. Afterwards I went out with him another night when the people were following the prayer of their reciter, and ‘Umar said, “This is a good innovation, but what you miss through sleeping is more excellent than what you are getting up for, meaning at the end of the night, for the people were getting up during the early part of the night.
We fasted along with God’s Messenger, but he did not make us get up at night for prayer at any time during the month till seven nights remained; then he made us get up for prayer till a third of the night had passed. Next night he did not make us get up, but when the fifth remaining night came he made us get up for prayer till a half of the night had gone, so I said, “Messenger of God, I wish you had led us in supererogatory prayers during the whole of this night." He replied, “When a man prays with an imam till he goes away he is reckoned as having spent a night in prayer." On the fourth remaining night he did not make us get up till two-thirds of the night had passed. On the third remaining night he gathered his family, his wives and the people and prayed with us till we were afraid we would miss the falah (explaining, when asked, that the falah was the meal before daybreak). Then he did not make us get up for prayer during the remainder of the month.
Abu Dawud, Tirmidhi and Nasa’i transmitted it, and Ibn Majah transmitted something similar, but Tirmidhi did not mention, “then he did not make us get up for prayer during the remainder of the month."
