Whoever wishes to meet Allah tomorrow as a Muslim, let him be diligent in observing these prayers wherever the call to them is made, for Allah has prescribed for your Prophet the ways of guidance, and these prayers are among the ways of guidance. If you were to pray in your homes as this man who stays behind prays in his home, you would have abandoned the way of your Prophet, and if you were to abandon the way of your Prophet, you would go astray.There is no man who purifies himself, performing the purification well, then sets out to one of these mosques, except that Allah records for him a good deed for every step he takes, raises him by it one degree, and removes from him by it one sin.In our time, no one stayed away from the prayer except a hypocrite whose hypocrisy was well known. A man would even be brought supported between two others until he was made to stand in the row.
حدثنا أبو نعيم حدثنا أبو عميس قال سمعت علي بن الأقمر يذكر عن أبي الأحوص
من سره أن يلقى الله غدا مسلما فليحافظ على هؤلاء الصلوات حيث ينادى بهن فإن الله شرع لنبيكم سنن الهدى وإنهن من سنن الهدى ولو أنكم صليتم في بيوتكم كما يصلي هذا المتخلف في بيته لتركتم سنة نبيكم ولو أنكم تركتم سنة نبيكم لضللتم وما من رجل يتطهر فيحسن الطهور ثم يعمد إلى مسجد من هذه المساجد إلا كتب الله له بكل خطوة يخطوها حسنة ويرفع له بها درجة ويحط عنه بها سيئة ولو رأيتنا وما يتخلف عنها إلا منافق معلوم النفاق ولقد كان الرجل يؤتى به يهادى بين الرجلين حتى يقام في الصف
Its isnad is sahih. Abu Umays is Utba bin Abdullah bin Utba bin Masud Masudi, and he is trustworthy, graded thiqah by Ahmad, Ibn Main, Ibn Saad, and others.Muslim narrated this hadith (1:181) from Abu Bakr bin Abu Shayba, from Fadl bin Dukayn, who is Abu Naeem, with this same isnad.Its meaning has already been given at greater length with another daif isnad (3623), where we pointed to Muslim's narration.The word [له] is an addition from manuscript K. In manuscript H it reads "walaw raaytana" instead of "walaqad raaytana", and the correction follows manuscript K.