93. What do you have to say about those who believe that offering prayer makes people virtuous and will take them to Paradise?

Worship has a certain form and a spirit. If you carry out the form alone, then that will not be of any value. The real value is of the spirit of worship. Once a person performed salah (prayer) in the mosque. When on completion he came to the Prophet, he said to him:

Go and read namaz again. (Sahih al-Bukhari, hadith no. 757)

The reason was that the Prophet had observed that the person had prayed without any spirit and had simply repeated the form of prayer. Today the crowds we see in mosques is a fulfilment of a prediction made by the Prophet:

A time will come when mosques will be full of people, but empty of guidance. (Shuab al-Iman, al-Bayhaqi, hadith no. 1763)