Sayyiduna Abu Dharr (may Allah be pleased with him) reports: I asked the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), "Which was the first mosque built on the earth?" He (peace be upon him) replied, "Al-Masjid al-Haram (i.e., the Ka'bah)." I asked, "Then which one?" He (peace be upon him) replied, "Al-Masjid al-Aqsa (i.e., Bayt al-Maqdis)." I asked again, "What was the time span between the two?" He (peace be upon him) replied, "Forty years." And (he said), "Wherever you may be when the time for prayer comes, perform the prayer there, for that is (also) a mosque."

Narrated from Sayyiduna Anas bin Malik, may Allah be pleased with him, that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, arrived in Madinah and stayed in a high part of the city, in a neighborhood called the quarter of Banu Amr bin Awf. He stayed there for fourteen days. Then the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, called the people of Banu Najjar, and they came with their swords hanging. Sayyiduna Anas, may Allah be pleased with him, said: It is as if I am seeing the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, at that moment; he was on his she-camel and Sayyiduna Abu Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him, was behind him, and the people of Banu Najjar were around him, until the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, dismounted in the courtyard of the house of Sayyiduna Abu Ayyub, may Allah be pleased with him. The blessed habit of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, was that wherever the time for prayer came, he would pray there, even in the place where goats were kept. (Because goats are poor and there is no fear that they would cause harm.) After that, the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, ordered the building of a mosque and called the people of Banu Najjar. They came, and he said to them: Sell me your garden for a price. They said: By Allah, we will not take the price of this garden; we seek its reward only from Allah (meaning, we desire the reward of the Hereafter, we do not need money). Sayyiduna Anas, may Allah be pleased with him, said: I will tell you what was in that garden; there were date-palm trees, graves of polytheists, and ruins. The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, ordered that the trees be cut down, the graves of the polytheists be dug up and removed, and the ruins be leveled. The wood of the trees was placed towards the qiblah, and stones were set on both sides of the door. When this work began, the Companions would recite rajaz (poetry), and the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, was with them. They would say: O Allah! The best and most excellent goodness is the goodness of the Hereafter, so help the Ansar and the Muhajirin.

Abu Salamah bin Abdur Rahman says that Abdur Rahman bin Abi Sa'id (may Allah be pleased with him) passed by, so I asked him, "How did you hear your father narrate about which mosque it is that was founded on piety?" He said that my father (may Allah be pleased with him) said: I was present in the service of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), in the house of one of his wives, and I asked, "O Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)! Which is the mosque that Allah, the Exalted, mentions as being founded on piety?" So the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) took a handful of pebbles and struck them on the ground and said, "It is this mosque of yours," meaning the mosque of Madinah. (Abu Salamah bin Abdur Rahman, the narrator of the hadith, says:) I said, "I also bear witness that I too heard your father, Abu Sa'id al-Khudri (may Allah be pleased with him), mention this mosque in the same way."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) that a woman became ill, so she said: "If Allah grants me recovery, I will go to Bayt al-Maqdis and pray there." Then she recovered, so she prepared to go and came to Umm al-Mu'mineen Maymunah (may Allah be pleased with her), greeted her, and informed her of her intention. Maymunah said: "Eat the provisions you have prepared and pray in the mosque of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), for I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) say: 'One prayer performed in this mosque is better than a thousand prayers performed in other mosques, except for al-Masjid al-Haram.'"

`Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Umar (may Allah be pleased with them) narrates that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) used to go to the Mosque of Quba riding and walking, and he would offer two units of prayer there.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Mahmud bin Labid (may Allah be pleased with him) that when Sayyiduna Uthman bin Affan (may Allah be pleased with him) intended to build a mosque, the people disliked this and wanted to leave the mosque as it was (i.e., as it was during the time of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him). So Uthman (may Allah be pleased with him) said: I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) say: Whoever builds a mosque for Allah, Allah will build for him a house in Paradise like it.

Narrated from Sayyiduna Abu Hurairah (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: The most beloved places to Allah among the cities are the mosques, and the most disliked places to Allah are the markets.

Sayyiduna Ubayy bin Ka'b (may Allah be pleased with him) says that there was a man from among the Ansar whose house was farther from the mosque than any other house in Madinah, and none of his family ever missed (congregational prayer) with the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) (i.e., he would reach for every prayer). I felt pity for him and said to him, "I wish you would buy a donkey so that it would protect you from the heat and the insects on the road." He replied, "By Allah! I do not wish that my house should be adjacent to the house of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him).”This statement of his was hard on me, so I came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and informed him. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) called him, and he said to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) the same as he had said to me, and added, "I want the reward for my steps." The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, "Indeed, you will have the reward for that which you hope for."

`Sayyiduna Abu Hurairah (may Allah be pleased with him) reports that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Whoever performs ablution at his home, then goes to one of Allah’s houses to fulfill one of Allah’s obligatory acts, then each of his steps will cause one sin to fall away and the other step will raise him one degree.

Sayyiduna Abu Qatadah (may Allah be pleased with him) says: We were praying with the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) when he heard the sound of people’s footsteps. He said (i.e., after the prayer), "What is your condition?" They said, "We hurried for the prayer." So the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said, "Do not do that. When you come for the prayer, come calmly. Then whatever you catch (with the Imam), pray it, and whatever you have missed, complete it."