Praying in the first row
Abu Dawud and Ibn Majah and the Musnad of Ahmad all have that al-Bara", may Allah be pleased with him, said: "Allah and His angels pray on the first row."
In the isnad of at-Tirmidhi: "Allah and His angels pray on the front row."
Al-Bukhari transmitted that Abu Hurayra said that the Messen- ger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:
"If people only knew what there was in doing Dhuhr at its time, they would race each other to it. And if they
knew what there was in the prayers of 'Isha and Subh, they would come to them even if they had to crawl. If they knew what there was in the call to prayer and the first row, they would draw lots for it."
Ibn Hajar said, "What is meant by the first row is the row immediately behind the Imam, and it is the first complete row behind the Imam, not one that has any gaps in it. Scholars say that this encouragement for people to join the first row is in order for them to hasten to discharge their responsibility, to hurry to enter the mosque, to be near the Imam and to listen to his recitation and leam from it and to be inspired by it and convey what he says, to be safe from someone else passing in front of him, to feel safe from seeing anyone in front of him, and for the place of his pros- tration to be safe from the coattails of anybody praying in front."
Going early to Jumu'a
In the Sahih of al-Bukhari, Abu Hurayra, may Allah be pleased with him, said that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:
"On the Day of Jumu'a, the angels stand at the door of the mosque and write down the first to come and then those who follow. When the Imam comes out, they roll up their scrolls and listen to the reminder."
Ibn Hajar said in the Fath and Abu Nu'aym transmitted it as
marfu in al-Hilya with the expression, "On the Day of Jumu'a,
Allah sends angels with scrolls of light and pens of light."
This indicates that the angels mentioned are not guardian angels. What is meant by the rolling up of the scrolls is to roll up the scrolls of the benefits connected with going early to Jumu'a as opposed to any other prayer, not those of listening to the khutba, catching the prayer, dhikr, supplication, humility and other such things. The guardian angels naturally write these things down. In
the variant of Ibn 'Uyayna from az-Zuhri at the end of this hadith in Ibn Majah we find "Anyone coming after that, comes merely for the sake of the prayer."