One night, the Prophet ﷺ led the people in the evening prayer. After he finished, some of his companions remained behind to pray. When he saw them standing in prayer and lingering, he went off to his lodging. Then, when he saw that the people had emptied the place, he returned to his spot and began to pray.I came and stood behind him, but he gestured to me with his right hand, so I stood at his right. Then Ibn Masud came and stood behind me and behind him, so the Prophet ﷺ gestured to him with his left hand, and he stood at his left. The three of us stood praying, each man praying on his own and reciting from the Quran whatever Allah willed him to recite.The Prophet ﷺ kept repeating a single verse of the Quran until he prayed the morning prayer. After daybreak, I gestured to Abdullah bin Masud to ask him what he had intended by what he did the night before.Ibn Masud waved his hand and said, "I will not ask him anything until he tells me himself."So I said, "May my father and mother be ransomed for you. You spent the night standing with a single verse of the Quran when the whole Quran is with you. If one of us had done this, we would have found fault with him."He replied, "I was praying for my community."I asked, "What answer were you given, or what response came to you?"He said, "I was answered with something that, if many of them came to know of it, they would abandon the prayer."I said, "Shall I not give the people the good news?"He said, "Yes."So I set off briskly, going about a stone's throw, when Umar said, "Messenger of Allah, if you send this to the people, they will give up acts of worship and rely on it." So the Prophet ﷺ called out for me to come back, and I returned.The verse was, "If You punish them, they are Your servants, and if You forgive them, indeed You are the Mighty, the Wise" [Maidah 5:118].
حدثنا يحيى حدثنا قدامة بن عبد الله حدثتني جسرة بنت دجاجة أنها انطلقت معتمرة فانتهت إلى الربذة فسمعت
قام النبي ﷺ ليلة من الليالي في صلاة العشاء فصلى بالقوم ثم تخلف أصحاب له يصلون فلما رأى قيامهم وتخلفهم انصرف إلى رحله فلما رأى القوم قد أخلوا المكان رجع إلى مكانه فصلى فجئت فقمت خلفه فأومأ إلي بيمينه فقمت عن يمينه ثم جاء ابن مسعود فقام خلفي وخلفه فأومأ إليه بشماله فقام عن شماله فقمنا ثلاثتنا يصلي كل رجل منا بنفسه ويتلو من القرآن ما شاء الله أن يتلو فقام بآية من القرآن يرددها حتى صلى الغداة فبعد أن أصبحنا أومأت إلى عبد الله بن مسعود أن سله ما أراد إلى ما صنع البارحة فقال ابن مسعود بيده لا أسأله عن شيء حتى يحدث إلي فقلت بأبي أنت وأمي قمت بآية من القرآن ومعك القرآن لو فعل هذا بعضنا وجدنا عليه قال دعوت لأمتي قال فماذا أجبت أو ماذا رد عليك قال أجبت بالذي لو اطلع عليه كثير منهم طلعة تركوا الصلاة قال أفلا أبشر الناس قال بلى فانطلقت معنقا قريبا من قذفة بحجر فقال عمر يا رسول الله إنك إن تبعث إلى الناس بهذا نكلوا عن العبادة فنادى أن ارجع فرجع وتلك الآية {إن تعذبهم فإنهم عبادك وإن تغفر لهم فإنك أنت العزيز الحكيم}