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Is there anything that helps one realize priorities in worship, and motivates one to attend to the most important first, then the important, when one persists in night prayers or reading the Quran during prayer times to the extent of missing congregational prayers in the mosque?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

We congratulate you on performing the night vigil prayer (Qiyam al-Layl) and reciting the Quran, and we ask Allah to grant you success. However, your preoccupation with recitation to the extent that you miss congregational prayer in the mosque is a clear mistake. Congregational prayer in the mosque is obligatory upon whoever hears the call (adhan), according to many scholars. The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said: "Whoever hears the call and does not come, there is no prayer for him except with an excuse." You should hasten to the mosque to catch the opening takbir (Takbirat al-Ihram). Al-Tirmidhi narrated from Anas that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said: "Whoever prays to Allah for forty days in congregation, catching the first takbir, two immunities will be written for him: immunity from the Fire and immunity from hypocrisy."

It is one of Satan's ploys to busy a Muslim with a less virtuous deed instead of a more virtuous one, in order to deprive him of much reward. He commands him to do a good deed of lesser virtue and urges him to do so if it entails abandoning what is better and higher than it. Only those who have light from Allah perceive this.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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