A man whose heart is attached to the mosques
From the people that will be granted shade under Allah’s (SWT) throne on a day where there will be no shade but His, is someone whose heart is attached to the mosques. This leaves one wondering: why is it that this specific quality was listed with the seven qualities that cause someone to be granted this much needed shade? What are the other benefits of this great quality? And how do I make myself from the ones who have this quality?
Though the hadeeth states that this person’s heart must be attached to the mosques, it automatically includes praying the five obligatory prayers in the mosque if possible, because you cannot claim to love the mosque if you don’t constantly pray in it. If we expand on this, we can see so many great benefits of praying in the mosque and if we were to list all of these benefits, it would never fit in one article, so we will only go through some of the benefits of praying in the mosque.
We all know the rewards of praying voluntary prayers in the night, and the prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said “Whoever prays Isha in congregation, it is as if he prayed half the night, and whoever prays Fajr in congregation, it is as if he prayed the whole night”. (Reported in Muslim). As we can see, the mere action of praying these two prayers in congregation (some scholars have stipulated it must be in the mosque too) gives us the reward of praying the whole night, so in reality, it really isn’t hard to pray the whole night for every night in your life, is it?
The prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said, “Give glad tidings to the ones who walk in the darkness to the mosques, with full light on the day of judgement”. (Reported in Abu Dawud). The full light that the prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) is talking about is the much needed light in the day of judgement which everyone needs to help them get over hellfire and into paradise on a day when darkness will befall everything.
The prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) was once speaking about Fajr and Isha and he said, “No hypocrite witnesses them”. (Reported in Ahmad). Therefore to be sure that you are saved from the self-destructive attribute of hypocrisy, you must ensure you pray Fajr and Isha in the mosque.
The prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said in a very beautiful hadeeth, “The congregational prayer for a man is multiplied over his prayer in his house or market by 25 degrees. This is because if he performs wudhu and perfects his wudhu, then he leaves his house, nothing makes him leave except prayer, he doesn’t take one step except that it raises him one degree and wipes away one of his sins. And if he prayed, the angels will continuously pray for him as long as he is in prayer, saying “O Allah pray for him, O Allah forgive him, O Allah have mercy on him”, and he will carry on being in a state of prayer as long as he is waiting for the prayer to be held”. (Reported in Bukhari and Muslim). As we can see from this hadeeth, the rewards for praying in a mosque are immense and the more you pray there, the more rewards you will get and the more sins you will have wiped away. Also, this hadeeth emphasises on how the ones who really love the mosque so much that they attend the mosque before the prayer begins, that while they are sitting waiting for the prayer, they will be rewarded the same reward as that if they were praying.
Another benefit that can be attained form having love for the mosque is that you will continuously spend more time in the mosque, thus meeting more brothers and establishing a sense of brotherhood with your neighbours as well as becoming acquainted with those around you. The brothers you will meet in the mosque will be different to the brothers you meet somewhere else because the brothers you meet in the mosque are ones that you only meet up with them due to a good cause. They are ones who always remind you of Allah (SWT) and tell you about circles of remembrance that are currently happening. They pick you up when you fall and ask about you if you miss a few prayers in the mosque. They will be people who love you and you love them for Allah’s (SWT) sake only, which is another attribute of those who will be under Allah’s (SWT) shade, therefore it can be said that having the attribute of loving the mosques actually leads you to having the other attribute of loving someone for the sake of Allah (SWT).
Having your heart attached to the mosque also leads to saving yourself from falling into unworthy desires because there is no room for opposites in a heart, so if you occupy your heart with the remembrance of Allah (SWT) and love for his mosques, then there will be no place in your heart for the dunya, and shaytaan will find no route to enter your heart and destroy it.
To achieve this great quality, we must know its benefits and the outcomes it achieves of which some have been listed above. We also need to know what the mosque is. It is not just a place of worship, it is also a house of Allah (SWT), and if a mosque is built, it is haram to change the building to something else as it is not owned by anyone except Allah (SWT). Also, one may feel that the mosque is very far from their house and it would take a very long time to get to the mosque and back, so if you feel you fall under that category, then try to attend a few prayers in the mosque every day. Don’t let the distance of the mosque put you off going to the mosque altogether because you know that for every step you take, you will be rewarded, therefore the further the mosque is, the more rewards you will get, so if the mosque is very far, pray there a few times a day because you cannot claim to love it if you don’t even try to go to it. If you are only praying in the mosque a few times a day but that is due to other valid reasons stopping you from going 5 times a day, then I pray that Allah (SWT) makes you from those whose heart is attached to the mosques, but you know yourself very well so you should assess your situation and you will know deep inside if you really love the mosque or not.
Also, we shouldn’t just go to the mosque for prayers only, as the mosque in the prophet’s (صلى الله عليه وسلم) time was in fact the headquarters for the Muslims, so you should also attend the mosque to listen to circles, learn/read the Qur’an, benefit from others, etc. When meeting up with your friends, why not meet up in the most beloved place to you, the mosque.
A personal story I have, is that alhamdulillah for the past ten years, both houses I have lived in had over 3 mosques within a 15 minute walking distance from me, the closest one being less than a 2 minute walk from my house. I believe that this is by virtue of my father as he is someone who always wakes the whole family up for Fajr and prays his five prayers in the mosque, so when we first came to this country, although the mosque was a bit far, my father still tried to pray all of the prayers there and now Allah (SWT) has rewarded him with mosques close to his house wherever he lives.
