The Prophet ﷺ dispatched Abdullah bin Rawaha on a military expedition, and it happened to fall on a Friday. His companions set out in the morning, but he said to himself, "I will stay behind to pray with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and then catch up with them."After he prayed with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, the Prophet ﷺ saw him and asked, "What prevented you from setting out with your companions?"He replied, "I wanted to pray with you and then catch up with them."The Prophet ﷺ said, "If you spent everything on earth, you would not attain the merit of their early departure."
حدثنا أحمد بن منيع حدثنا أبو معاوية عن الحجاج عن الحكم عن مقسم
بعث النبي ﷺ عبد الله بن رواحة في سرية فوافق ذلك يوم الجمعة فغدا أصحابه فقال أتخلف فأصلي مع رسول الله ﷺ ثم ألحقهم فلما صلى مع رسول الله ﷺ رآه فقال ما منعك أن تغدو مع أصحابك فقال أردت أن أصلي معك ثم ألحقهم قال لو أنفقت ما في الأرض جميعا ما أدركت فضل غدوتهم
[Its chain of transmission is daif] Ahmad recorded it: 1/224, "Abu Muawiya narrated to us, Hajjaj (Ibn Artah) narrated to us," and Hajjaj alone transmitted it, as Bayhaqi said: 3/187, and he is daif and a mudallis. The hadith is found in Sharh al-Sunnah: 4/227, no. 1057, through the route of Tirmidhi with the same wording. It has a daif corroborating narration in Ibn Abdul-Hakam's Futuh Misr, p. 298.