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.
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."
'Umar ordered Ubayy b. Ka'b and Tamim ad-Dari to lead the people in eleven rak'as during the night in Ramadan. The reader was reciting a hundred verses in each rak'a so that we leaned on our sticks because of standing so long, and we did not depart till the dawn was beginning to break.
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."
