A woman fell ill and said, "If Allah heals me, I will travel and pray at Bayt al-Maqdis."She recovered and began preparing for the journey. Maymunah, the wife of the Prophet ﷺ, came to greet her, and the woman told her of her plan.Maymunah said, "Sit down, eat what you have prepared, and pray in the mosque of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, for I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say, 'A prayer in it is better than a thousand prayers in any other mosque, except the Mosque of the Kaabah.'"
إن امرأة اشتكت شكوى، فقالت: إن شفاني الله لأخرجن فلأصلين في بيت المقدس، فبرأت، ثم تجهزت تريد الخروج، فجاءت ميمونة زوج النبي ﷺ تسلم عليها، فأخبرتها ذلك، فقالت: اجلسي، فكلي ما صنعت، وصلي في مسجد الرسول الله ﷺ، فإني سمعت رسول الله ﷺ يقول: صلاة فيه أفضل من ألف صلاة فيما سواه من المساجد إلا مسجد الكعبة.
Muslim narrated it in Hajj (1396, 510) from Qutayba bin Saeed and Muhammad bin Rumh, both of them from Layth bin Saad, from Nafi, from Ibrahim bin Abdullah bin Mabad, from Ibn Abbas, who said, then he related it as mentioned above.His statement "from Ibn Abbas" appears this way in all the copies of Muslim, and the hadith scholars criticized Muslim for mentioning Ibn Abbas in the chain. The correct version is Ibrahim bin Abdullah bin Mabad, from Maymuna, and Nasai narrated it likewise (691, 2898).I say, it seems he mentioned Ibn Abbas by mistake. Among the narrators was Ibrahim bin Abdullah bin Mabad bin Abbas bin Abdul-Muttalib al-Hashimi, one of the Followers, who is the one who narrated from Maymuna, so they said of him, "from Ibn Abbas."Nawawi's statement that Bukhari narrated it in his Sahih is an error, for he did not narrate this hadith in his Sahih. Rather, he said in Tarikh al-Kabir (303/1), "It is not sahih from Ibn Abbas regarding it."His words, "except Masjid al-Haram," the scholars differed over the meaning of this exception, in line with their disagreement over which is superior, Makkah or Madinah. The majority of scholars held that Makkah is superior to Madinah, and that the masjid of Makkah is superior to the masjid of Madinah. This view is supported by what is mentioned in the hadith of Ibn Zubayr, who said, "I heard Umar say, 'A prayer in Masjid al-Haram is better than one hundred thousand prayers anywhere else,' meaning other masjids, except the masjid of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ."Tahawi narrated it in Sharh Mushkil (2/61) and Ibn Abdul-Barr in Tamhid (19/6), both of them from the hadith of Sufyan bin Uyayna, from Ziyad bin Saad, from Ibn Atiq, who said, "I heard Ibn Zubayr," then he related it.Ibn Abdul-Barr said, "So here are Umar bin Khattab and Abdullah bin Zubayr, with no companion disagreeing with them, both affirming the superiority of prayer in Masjid al-Haram over the masjid of the Prophet ﷺ."Those who held that Madinah is superior strained themselves in explaining the meaning of the hadith.Yahya bin Yahya related from Ibn Nafi that he was asked about the meaning of this hadith, and he said, "Its meaning is that a prayer in the masjid of the Prophet ﷺ is superior to a prayer in Masjid al-Haram, but by less than a thousand prayers, while it is superior to prayer in other masjids by a full thousand prayers."Ibn Abdul-Barr criticized this and said, "It is far-fetched to those knowledgeable in the language."I say, moreover, it contradicts the explicit wording of the text.In the narration of Ibn Hibban, "And a prayer there is better than one hundred prayers in the masjid of Madinah."In view of this disagreement, the two Shaykhs did not mention the hadith concerning the number of prayers in Masjid al-Haram, even though the hadith of Jabir bin Abdullah, recorded in the Book of Masjids, meets their criteria. Likewise, Bukhari did not mention it in the chapter either, as was his custom when something did not meet his criteria, in completing the clarification of the meaning of the hadith.