The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, "I had a mind to order a man to lead the prayer, then to order my young men," and Sufyan once said, "young men, to go behind people who do not attend the prayer and burn down their houses upon them with bundles of firewood. If any of you knew that he would find a fat bone or two good pieces of meat between hooves, he would surely attend the prayers." Sumayy once said, "the night prayer."
حدثنا سفيان عن أبي الزناد عن الأعرج
قال رسول الله ﷺ لقد هممت أن آمر رجلا فيقيم الصلاة ثم آمر فتياني وقال سفيان مرة فتيانا فيخالفون إلى قوم لا يأتونها فيحرقون عليهم بيوتهم بحزم الحطب ولو علم أحدكم أنه يجد عظما سمينا أو مرماتين حسنتين إذا لشهد الصلوات وقال سفيان مرة العشاء
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Its chain of transmission is sahih. Muslim related it, 1:180, with some abridgement, through the route of Sufyan bin Uyayna, with this same chain. Malik related it in Muwatta, 129-130, with similar wording, from Abu Zinad from Araj. Bukhari related it, 104:2-108, through the route of Malik. Bukhari also related it, 54:5, and Muslim, 1:180-181, at length and in abridged form, through other routes from Abu Hurairah.His statement, "Sufyan said once, fityanan," this is how it appears in H, with an alif of tanwin after the noon, so it is read with a kasrah on the fa and a sakin on the ta, being the plural of fatiy. It is written in K as fityan, marked there with a fathah over the fa and another over the ta and a kasrah under the noon, making it a dual form. It is written in M the same way as in K but without vowel marks, so it could be read either as a dual or as a plural."So they oppose, then I turn against men" in the narration of the Muwatta, Qadi Iyad said in al-Masharik, 1:238, meaning, I come at them from behind them, or I turn against what I had shown of my action in establishing the prayer, and their assumption that I was in it and preoccupied with it away from them, so I turn against that toward them, and I punish them and catch them off guard. It may also be that "ukhalif" here carries the meaning of "I hold back," that is, from the prayer in order to punish them. The word "or" was mistakenly dropped from the copy of al-Masharik, and we have added it back from al-Nihaya."Bihazmil-hatab," with a dammah on the ha and a fathah on the za, the plural of hizmah, following the pattern of ghurfah and ghuraf."Wa law yalamu ahadukum," this is how it appears in the three source manuscripts here. In the rest of the narrations it is ahaduhum, and this is a variant reading found in the margins of the two manuscripts K and M."Aw mirmatayn," the dual of mirmah. Ibn Athir said, al-mirmah is the hoof of a sheep, and it is also said to mean what lies between its two hooves. Its meem may be read with either a kasrah or a fathah. Abu Ubayd said, this is an expression whose meaning I do not know for certain, except that it is explained in this way as referring to what lies between the two hooves of a sheep, intending by it to convey its insignificance."Lashahida as-salah," in a marginal variant found in K and M, "as-salah" appears in the singular form.Al-Hafiz has gone into great detail in al-Fath in explaining this hadith, and has done so excellently, in a manner that no seeker of knowledge can afford to overlook.