345 - Chapter

1449 - Ahmad ibn Hanbal narrated to us, Hajjaj narrated to us, he said: Ibn Jurayj said: Uthman ibn Abi Sulayman narrated to me, from Ali al-Azdi, from Ubayd ibn Umayr, from Abdullah ibn Hubshi al-Khath'ami: that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, was asked: "Which deeds are most virtuous?" He said: "Length of standing." It was said: "Then which charity is most virtuous?" He said: "The effort of one who has little." It was said: "Then which emigration is most virtuous?" He said: "One who emigrates from what Allah has forbidden upon him." It was said: "Then which jihad is most virtuous?" He said: "One who strives against the polytheists with his wealth and his soul." It was said: "Then which killing is most honorable?" He said: "One whose blood is spilled and whose horse is wounded."(1)

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= And His saying: "Make some of your prayers." Al-Tibi said: "Min" is partitive, and it is the first object of "make," and the second is "in your houses," meaning: make some of your prayers—namely, the supererogatory ones—performed in your houses.

And His saying: "And do not take them as graves," meaning: like graves, abandoned with respect to prayer. He likened houses in which prayer is not performed to graves, in which the dead cannot perform acts of worship.

(1) Its chain is strong on account of Ali al-Azdi—and he is Ibn Abdullah al-Bariqi—for he is truthful with no harm in him, but the correct wording is what we will present from the two narrations of Ahmad and al-Nasa'i, Allah willing.
Hajjaj: he is Ibn Muhammad al-Missisi, and Ibn Jurayj: he is Abd al-Malik ibn Abd al-Aziz.
Al-Nasa'i also transmitted it in "al-Kubra" (2317) from Abd al-Wahhab ibn al-Hakam al-Warraq, from Hajjaj ibn Muhammad, with this chain. Except that he said in it: that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, was asked: "Which deeds are most virtuous?" He said: "Faith in which there is no doubt, jihad in which there is no treachery, and an accepted Hajj." It was said: "Then which prayer is most virtuous?" He said: "Length of qunut" ... And it is likewise in "Musnad Ahmad" (15401). So it appears that Abu Dawud abbreviated it, and he erred in his abbreviation, and Allah Almighty knows best. And it was narrated likewise with this wording that Abd al-Wahhab ibn al-Hakam and Ahmad narrated in his "Musnad": Harun ibn Abdullah al-Hammal, according to al-Nasa'i in "al-Mujtaba" (4986).
And it has already preceded in abbreviated form with his saying: that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, was asked: "Which deeds are most virtuous?" He said: "Length of standing," under number (1325).