Abu Huraira reported God’s Messenger as saying, "When the iqama has been pronounced for prayer, do not go running to it, but go walking in tranquility, and pray what you are in time for and complete what you have missed.”
(Bukhari and Muslim.) A version by Muslim has, "for when one of you is making for prayer he is engaged in prayer.”
Zaid b. Aslam said that God's Messenger stopped for rest one night on the road to Mecca and made Bilal responsible for wakening them for prayer; but Bilal slept and so did they all, awakening only after sunrise. The people were startled when they awoke, and God’s Messenger ordered them to mount and get out of that wadi, saying, "This is a wadi inhabited by a devil.” So they mounted, and when they had gone out of that wadi God’s Messenger ordered them to dismount and perform ablution, and having ordered Bilal to summon the people to prayer, or pronounce the iqama, he led the people in prayer and afterwards departed. He had noticed some of their dismay, so he said, "You people must realise that God took our spirits, and if He had wished He would have returned them to us at another time than this; so if anyone of you sleeps beyond the time for prayer, or forgets it, then has recourse to it, he should observe it as he has been in the habit of doing at its proper time.” God’s Messenger then turned to Abu Bakr as-Siddiq and said, “The devil came to Bilal while he was standing engaged in prayer, and making him lie down, he kept soothing him as a child is soothed till he fell asleep.” He then summoned Bilal who told him something similar to what he had just told Abu Bakr, whereupon Abu Bakr said. “I testify that you are God’s Messenger.”
Abu Huraira said that when God’s Messenger returned from the expedition to Khaibar,1 he travelled one night and stopped for rest only when he became sleepy. He told Bilal to remain on guard during the night, and he prayed as much as he could while God’s Messenger and his companions slept. When the time for dawn approached Bilal leaned on his camel facing in the direction from which the dawn should appear; but he was overcome by sleep while he was leaning on his camel, and neither God’s Messenger nor Bilal awoke, nor did any of his companions till the sun shone on them. God's Messenger was the first of them to awake, and being startled he called to Bilal, who said "He who took away my soul is the One who took away yours."2 He said, "Lead the beasts on,” and when they had done so for some distance, God’s Messenger performed ablution, gave orders to Bilal who pronounced the iqama, and then led them in the Morning Prayer. When he finished the prayer he said, "If anyone forgets prayer he should say it when he remembers it, for God has said, ‘And observe the prayer for remembrance of me.’”3
1. In 7 AH.
2. This is probably to be connected with the thought in the Qur’an, 39:42, which speaks of God taking the souls of people during their sleep.
3. Al-Qur’an; 20:14
