Chapter: Concession allowing one to not attend the congregation if there is an excuse

Messenger of Allah, I have lost my eyesight and I lead my people in prayer. When there is a downpour there is then a current (of water) in the valley that stands between me and them and I find it impossible to go to their mosque and lead them in prayer. Messenger of Allah, I earnestly beg of you that you should come and observe prayer at a place of worship (in my house) so that I should then use it as a place of worship. The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: Well, it God so wills. I would soon do so. 'Itban said: On the following day when the day dawned, the Messenger of Allah (may peace he upon him) came along with Abu Bakr at-Siddiq, and the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) asked permission (to get into the house). I gave him the permission, and be did not sit after entering the house, when he said: At what place in your house you desire me to say prayer? I ('Itban b. Malik) said: I pointed to a corner in the house, The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) stood (at that place for prayer) and pronounced Allah-o-Akbar (Allah is the Greatest) (as an expression for the commencement of prayer). We too stood behind him, and he said two rak'ahs and then pronounced salutation (marking the end of the prayer). We detained him (the Holy Prophet) for the meat curry we had prepared for, him. The people of the neighbouring houses came and thus there was a good gathering in (our house). One of them said: Where is Malik b. Dukhshun? Upon this one of them remarked: He is a hypocrite; he does not love Allah and His Messenger. Thereupon the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: Do not say so about him. Don't you see that he utters La ilaha ill-Allah (There is no god but Allah) and seeks the pleasure of Allah through it? They said: Allah and His Messenger know beet. One (among the audience) said: We see his inclination and wellwishing for hypocrites only. Upon this the Messenger of Allah' (ﷺ) again said: Verily Allah has forbidden the Fire for one who says: There is no god but Allah, thereby seeking Allah's pleasure. Ibn Shihab said: I asked Husain b. Muhammad al-Ansar (he was one of the leaders of Banu Salim) about the hadith transmitted by Mahmud b. Rabi' and he testified it.

I came to the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) and the rest of the hadith is the same as narrated (above) except this that a man said: Where is Malik b. Dukhshun or Dukhaishin, and also made this addition that Mahmud said: I narrated this ver hadith to many people and among them was Abu Ayyub al-Ansari who said: I cannot think that the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) could have said so as you say. He (the narrator) said: I took an oath that if I ever go to 'Itban. I would ask him about it. So I went to him and found him to be a very aged man, having lost his eyesight, but he was the Imam of the people. I sat by his side and asked about this hadith and he narrated it In the same way as he had narrated it for the first time. Then so many other obligatory acts and commands were revealed which we see having been completed. So he who wants that he should not be deceived would not be deceived.

I well remember the disgorge of the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) that he did (with water) from a bucket of our house. Mahmud said: 'Itban b. Malik narrated it to me that he had said: Messenger of Allah, I have lost my eyesight, and the rest of the hadith is the same up to these words:" He led us in two rak'ahs of prayer and we detained the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) for serving him the pudding that we had prepared for him," and no mention has been made of what follows next from the addition made by Yunus and Ma'mar.