عَنْ زَيْدِ بْنِ ثَابِتٍ
أَنَّ النَّبِيَّ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ اتَّخَذَ حُجْرَةً فِي الْمَسْجِدِ مِنْ حَصِيرٍ فَصَلَّى فِيهَا لَيَالِيَ حَتَّى اجْتَمَعَ عَلَيْهِ نَاسٌ ثُمَّ فَقَدُوا صَوْتَهُ لَيْلَةً وَظَنُّوا أَنَّهُ قَدْ نَامَ فَجَعَلَ بَعْضُهُمْ يَتَنَحْنَحُ لِيَخْرُجَ إِلَيْهِمْ.
فَقَالَ: مَا زَالَ بِكُمُ الَّذِي رَأَيْتُ مِنْ صَنِيعِكُمْ حَتَّى خَشِيتُ أَنْ يُكْتَبَ عَلَيْكُمْ وَلَوْ كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمْ مَا قُمْتُمْ بِهِ. فَصَلُّوا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ فِي بُيُوتِكُمْ فَإِنَّ أَفْضَلَ صَلَاةِ الْمَرْء فِي بَيته إِلَّا الصَّلَاة الْمَكْتُوبَة)
God’s Messenger made an apartment of reed mats in the mosque and prayed in it for some nights until people gathered round him. One night when they missed his voice and thought he had gone to sleep, some of them began to clear their throats in order that he might come out to them, so he said, “What I have seen you doing has continued to be your practice, so that I have been afraid that it might be prescribed for you, and if it were prescribed for you you would not fulfil it.
You people should therefore pray in your houses, for, with the exception of the prescribed prayer, the most excellent prayer a man observes is that which he observes in his house.”