Reward for praying in the two Holy Mosques & Other

Reward for praying in the Two Holy Mosques, it means one single prayer in it, its reward is equal to the reward of an ‘Umrah.” Therefore, whoever performs many prayers in it, he gets the reward of many ‘Umrahs according to the number of the prayers that he prays in it, and Allaah is the possessor of great bounty.

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

It is narrated by Imaam Ahmad in his Musnad and also by Ibn Maajah and others on the authority of Jaabir  that the Prophet said: ”The prayer in my mosque (Al-Madeenah mosque) is better than one thousand prayers in any other mosque with the exception of the Al-Haraam mosque, and a prayer in Al-Haraam mosque is better than 100,000 prayers.” Husayn (one of the narrators) said: “in other mosques.”

There is no difference of opinion in this regard between an obligatory prayer and other (optional) prayers as the statement of the Prophet was general.

An-Nawawi while interpreting Saheeh Muslim, said: “You should know that our School of jurisprudence [i.e. Ash-Shaafi’i] is of the view that this excellence is not peculiar to obligatory prayers in these two mosques; rather, this includes the obligatory prayers and the Nafl (optional or supererogatory) prayers altogether, and this is the view of Mutarrif from the Maliki School, but At-Tahaawi said: “This is peculiar to the obligatory prayer”, but this is contrary to the general meaning of the authentic Ahaadeeth that is said in this regard. …This is in regard to the reward, the reward of the prayer in this mosque is more than 1000 in other mosques, but this does not include it being sufficient for missed prayers; so if one has two missed prayers and he prays in Al-Madeenah Mosque one prayer, then this prayer is not sufficient for the two missed prayers, and there is no difference of opinion in this regard.”

Therefore, whoever prays an obligatory prayer in Al-Haraam Mosque, it will be written for him the reward of more than 100,000 obligatory prayers in any other mosque (other than Al-Madeenah Mosque), and whoever performs a supererogatory prayer in it, it will be written for him the reward of more than 100,000 supererogatory prayers in any other mosque (other than Al-Madeenah Mosque).

Likewise, for one single prayer in Qubaa’ mosque, one gets the reward of what equals an ‘Umrah, as it is confirmed that the Prophet said: ”The prayer in Qubaa’ mosque is equal to an ‘Umrah.” [Ahmad, At-Tirith, and An-Nasaa’i]

Tuhfat Al-Ahwathi reads: “It means one single prayer in it, its reward is equal to the reward of an ‘Umrah.” Therefore, whoever performs many prayers in it, he gets the reward of many ‘Umrahs according to the number of the prayers that he prays in it, and Allaah is the possessor of great bounty.

Similarly, an ‘Umrah in Ramadhaan is equal to a Hajj as confirmed from the Prophet. It is for this reason that some jurists are of the view that it is desirable to perform ‘Umrah many times in the month of Ramadhaan so that the reward would be repeated. Ibn Al-Muflih, from the Hanbali School of jurisprudence, said in Al-Furoo‘: “It is desirable for a person to perform it [i.e. ‘Umrah] many times in Ramadhaan as it equals Hajj as per the Hadeeth.”

Nonetheless, some jurists are of the view that the ‘Umrah that equals Hajj is not the ‘Umrah in which one goes out to the nearest point out of the sanctuary of Makkah to assume Ihraam from, as the Prophet did not do so at all during his stay in Makkah, neither before the Conquest of Makkah nor after it, and no Companion did so, despite the fact that they were the people who were most keen on performing good deeds, and they were the most knowledgeable of what the Prophet had meant and most capable of doing it; however, they did not do this easy activity that has a great reward, so how come that one of them could have performed 30 Hajj in Ramadhaan [i.e. the reward of 30 Hajj by performing ‘Umrah 30 times] or more and then he did not perform one single ‘Umrah to get the reward of Hajj? Indeed, what the Prophet meant is the usual ‘Umrah that he and his Companions did, for which they started their journey from their place of residence where they used to live, and it is this kind of ‘Umrah that the Prophet ordered Umm Ma‘qil to perform and said to her: “An ‘Umrah in Ramadhaan is equal to Hajj.” However, the Prophet did not say to the people of Makkah: “Go out to the nearest point out the sanctuary of Makkah to assume Ihraam from and perform as much ‘Umrahs as you could, as an ‘Umrah in Ramadhaan is equal to a Hajj”, and no Companion understood this from him.

Allaah Knows best.

Source: islamweb.net