The Hadeeth:

لا يَزَالُ قَوْمٌ يَتَأَخَّرُونَ حَتَّى يُؤَخِّرَهُمْ اللَّهُ

“A people will not cease to be late and fall behind up until Allah leaves them behind”

[Reported by Muslim on the authority of Abu Sa’eed al-Khudri]

A Side Note: What can be taken from this general wording of this narration is the importance of being punctual for acts of worship. Therefore, from this starting point I begin with encouraging myself firstly and others secondly with the importance of being on time for the arranged classes in the Masaajid.

Ash-Shaykh Muhammad bin Saalih al-Uthaymeen commented on the aforesaid hadeeth by saying:

وعلى هذا فيخشى على الإنسان إذا عود نفسه التأخر في العبادة أن يبتلى بأن يؤخره الله عز وجل في جميع مواطن الخير.

… Therefore, what is feared upon the person if he makes himself accustomed to falling behind in acts of worship is that Allah will trial him with falling behind in all acts of goodness.

[Majmoo’ul Fataawa]

Translated by

AbdulFattaah Bin Uthman
Abu Fajr