The iqama* had been uttered and God’s Messenger faced us and said, “Make your rows straight and stand close together, for l can see you behind my back.”
* A repetition of the words of the call to prayer after the worshippers have taken their places with the addition of a statement that the time of prayer has come.
Bukhari transmitted it. In the version given by Bukhari and Muslim he said, “Make the rows perfect, for I can see you behind my back."
God’s Messenger used to touch our shoulders at the prayer and say, “Keep straight; do not be irregular and so have your hearts irregular. Let those of you who are sedate and prudent be near me, then those who are next to them, then those who are next to them." Abu Mas'ud said, “Nowadays you are much more irregular."
God’s Messenger used to straighten our rows as if he were trying to make them as straight as arrows until he saw that we had learned it from him. One day he came out, stood up, and was just about to say God is most great ’ when he saw a man whose chest projected from the row, so he said, “Servants of God, you must straighten your rows, or God will certainly put your faces in contrary directions."*
* The use of “faces” here may mean the people themselves and their inner nature. The tradition may refer to civil strife, which is possibly the meaning of the tradition below from Abu Mas'ud.
