Hadith 7.2

ENGLISH

Tirmidhi has something similar from ‘Abd ar-Rahman, and from Ibn ‘Abbas and Mu'adh b. Jabal, in which he had additions:

He asked, "Muhammad, do you know what the angels near My presence dispute about?" I replied, "Yes, about expiations, and they are remaining in the mosques after the prayers are over, walking on foot to the congregational prayers, and performing elaborate ablution in unpleasant circumstances (Cf. p. 151). Whoever does that will live and die righteously, and as far as his sin is concerned, he will be as he was on the day his mother gave birth to him." He said, "Muhammad, when you pray say, ‘O God, I ask You to enable me to do good deeds, abandon objectionable things, and love the poor, and when You intendest to test Your servants, take me to Thyself without being led astray.'" He said, "People are raised in degree by saluting all and sundry, providing food, and praying at night when people are asleep." The wording of this tradition is as it occurs in <i>al-Masabih</i>, but I found it traced to ‘Abd ar-Rahman only in <i>Sharh as-sunna</i>.