Running to get the Rakaat in the Masjid

Narrated Abu Huraira:

I heard Allah’s Apostles (p.b.u.h) saying,”If the prayer is started do not run for it but just walk for it calmly and pray whatever you get, and complete whatever is missed. “

Bukhari

More often, in the Masjid, when the ‘Jamaat’ has started and the Imaam has lowered himself in the Ruku, you may find a brother who has just entered the Masjid, is witnessing the Imaam lowering himself in the Ruku position with the namazee brothers behind him; and this brother feels that he MUST catch the Ruku position so he doesn’t miss a Rakaat.

And therefore you can hear him ‘sprint’ towards the row , ‘thud thud’ along the masjid floor with his distinguished sprint , just so that he doesn’t have to read another rakaat after the Jamaat has finished!

Fellow brethren, please let’s all learn from Abu Huraira’s Hadith.

I heard Allah’s Apostles (p.b.u.h) saying,”If the prayer is started do not run for it but just walk for it calmly and pray whatever you get, and complete whatever is missed. “
Bukhari

Salaah is supposed to be a time for YOU to connect with Allah swt, to stand in front of your Creator, in awe and obedience, to deliver all the necessary actions of Salaah in a manner of humility, ease and concentration, lowering yourself gently into the Ruku, and then lowering yourself back and forward in ease , especially at Sajdah, where the servant of Allah swt is most closest to his Master, and he pauses in the Sajdah position for a ‘dua’ to be whispered from the very core of his heart.

With such a hurry, will the brother even manage to complete reciting the more important Surah Fateha before the Imaam rises from the Ruku?

Hence, please, take a chill pill, when you enter the Masjid and the Imaan is in the Ruku position; if you make it then it is fine but do not end up getting all flustered about it such that you need to all of sudden take a sprint and inconvenience your fellow brothers who are already in the Salaah!

And those overweight brothers, you do not do yourself justice, because your sprint towards the line where we are all standing, all we can hear is you ‘puffing and panting’ when you do stand in line with the jaamat, trying to get a hold of your breath!… Won’t this ‘puffing and panting’ cost your concentration? Who knows; this could be your last Salaah before you meet your Lord? Not good brothers! Take it easy.

Salaah is not a race, it is a time to be in control of yourself, to take the Worldly burden off your shoulders and to spend time with Allah swt, a time which you cannot imagine; is essentially very very precious.

And Allah swt knows best