A woman fell ill and vowed, "If Allah cures me, I will travel and pray in Bayt al-Maqdis." She recovered and prepared to set out. Maymunah, the wife of the Prophet ﷺ, came to greet her, and the woman told her of her plan.Maymunah said to her, "Sit down, eat what you have prepared, and pray in the mosque of the Messenger ﷺ. I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say, 'A single prayer in it is better than a thousand prayers in any other mosque, except the Mosque of the Kaabah.'"
إن امرأة اشتكت شكوي، فقالت: إن شفاني الله لأخرجن فلأصلين في بيت المقدس، فبرأت ثم تجهزت تريد الخروج، فجاءت ميمونة زوج النبي ﷺ تسلم عليها، فأخبرتها ذلك، فقالت لها ميمونة: اجلسي فكلي ماصنعت، وصلي في مسجد الرسول ﷺ فإني سمعت رسول الله ﷺ يقول: صلاة فيه أفضل من ألف صلاة من المساجد فيما سواه إلا مسجد الكعبة.
Muslim narrated it in the chapter on Hajj (13/510:396) through several routes from Layth bin Saad, from Nafi, from Ibrahim bin Abdullah bin Mabad, from Ibn Abbas, and he related it as mentioned.The Prophet's ﷺ statement, "A prayer in this masjid of mine," applies specifically to this masjid and not to any other masjid in Madinah. It covers the Masjid Nabawi as it was in his ﷺ time, along with whatever was added to it during the era of the Rightly Guided Caliphs, and whatever was added after them, according to the soundest opinion among scholars, since all of it is called the Masjid Nabawi. This differs from Masjid al-Haram, for the correct view among scholars is that it encompasses the entire sanctuary of Makkah and applies to all the masjids within the sanctuary.It has been reported from Miswar bin Makhrama, who related the hadith at length, including the statement that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to pray within the sanctuary while his tent was pitched outside the sanctuary. His statement, "he used to pray within the sanctuary," means within the sanctuary of Makkah, and his statement, "while his tent was pitched outside the sanctuary," means that his tent was set up outside the sanctuary boundary.Regarding Allah's statement, "Glory be to Him who took His servant by night from Masjid al-Haram to al-Masjid al-Aqsa, whose surroundings We have blessed, so that We might show him some of Our signs" [Isra 17:1], what is meant by Masjid al-Haram here is Makkah itself, since the Prophet ﷺ was in his own house at the time of the Night Journey, and according to one narration, he was in the house of Umm Hani. Ibn Abbas explained Masjid al-Haram, saying that the entire sanctuary is Masjid al-Haram, referring to Allah's statement, "That is for those whose people are not present at Masjid al-Haram" [Baqarah 2:196].Hafiz bin Qayyim said that the multiplication of the reward for prayer in Makkah applies to the entire sanctuary and is not limited to the masjid where the tawaf takes place.The Shafiis relied on these and other hadiths to argue that the multiplication of reward for prayer applies generally within the two masjids, to all prayers. The majority of scholars, including the Hanafis, the Hanbalis, and the soundest position among the Malikis, held that this applies specifically to obligatory prayers and not to voluntary ones, based on the Prophet's ﷺ statement, "Pray in your homes, O people, for the best prayer of a person is in his home, except for the obligatory prayer." Agreed upon by Bukhari and Muslim.The same reasoning is applied to the multiplication of reward for prayer in Bayt al-Maqdis. Their position is further supported by the fact that when the word "prayer" is used without qualification in the Quran and sunnah, it refers to obligatory prayers rather than voluntary ones, since voluntary prayers are mentioned with qualifying terms.However, the mercy of Allah is vast, and if His mercy encompasses all prayers, whether obligatory or voluntary, including the Friday prayer, the two Eid prayers, the funeral prayer, the prayer for rain, and others, then no one can prevent that. This is especially so since the word "prayer" is used in an indefinite form, which encompasses all types of prayer.