Abu Dharr said that he asked God’s Messenger which mosque was set up first in the earth and was told that it was the sacred mosque. He asked which came next and was told that it was the Aqsa mosque. He asked how long a space of time separated their building and the Prophet told him it was forty years, adding, “Then the earth is a mosque for you, so pray wherever you are at the time of prayer.”
Anas b. Malik reported God’s Messenger as saying, “A man’s prayer in his house is equivalent to a single observance of prayer, his prayer in a tribal mosque is equivalent to twenty-five, his prayer in a mosque in which the Friday prayer is observed is equivalent to five hundred, his prayer in the Aqsa mosque is equivalent to fifty thousand, his prayer in my mosque is equivalent to fifty thousand, and his prayer in the sacred mosque (the Ka’ba) is equivalent to a hundred thousand.”
عَن عمر بن أبي سَلمَة قَالَ: رَأَيْتُ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ يُصَلِّي فِي ثَوْبٍ وَاحِدٍ مُشْتَمِلًا بِهِ فِي بَيْتِ أُمِّ سَلَمَةَ وَاضِعًا طَرَفَيْهِ عَلَى عَاتِقيهِ
“Umar b. Abu Salama said that he saw God’s Messenger praying in Umm Salama’s house girded with a single garment, placing its two ends over his shoulders.*
* This is explained as meaning that the ends were each over a shoulder and under the other armpit and tied over the chest.
Mu'adh b. Jabal said that the Prophet used to like to pray in al-hitan*. One of its transmitters says that it means gardens.
* I have given the Arabic word because it is explained in the text. Why it should need to be explained is not clear.
Tirmidhi transmitted it and said, “This is a gharib tradition which we know only among the traditions of al-Hasan b. Abu Ja'far whom Yahya b. Sa'id and others have declared to be weak.”
