Is there more reward if the congregation is greater?

Question

Praise be to Allah.

Yes, the reward for naafil and obligatory prayers is greater
if the number of worshippers is greater.

It was narrated that Ubayy ibn Ka’b said: The Messenger of
Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “A man’s
prayer with one other man is better than his praying alone, and a man’s
prayer with two other men is better than his praying with one other. The
more there are the more beloved that is to Allaah.” Narrated by Abu Dawood,
554; al-Nasaa’i, 834. Classed as saheeh by al-Albaani in Saheeh Abi
Dawood.

Al-Bazzaar and al-Tabaraani narrated that the Prophet
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “The prayer of two men,
one of them leading the other, is better before Allaah than the prayer of
eight praying separately, and the prayer of four men, one of them leading
the others, is better before Allaah than the prayer of one hundred praying
separately.” Classed as hasan by al-Albaani in Saheeh al-Targheeb,
412.

“Better” here means greater in reward.

“The more there are” means the greater they are in number;
that is better than if there are fewer.

Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah said in Majmoo’ al-Fataawa,
31/221:

It is better for the people to be gathered in one mosque than
scattered between two mosques, because the greater the congregation, the
better… then he quoted this hadeeth as evidence.

Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen said:

If we assume that there are two mosques, one
of which has a larger congregation than the other, it is better to go to the
one which has the larger congregation, because the Prophet (peace and
blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “A man’s prayer with one other man is
better than his praying alone, and a man’s prayer with two other men is
better than his praying with one other. The more there are the more beloved
that is to Allaah.” This is general in meaning. So if there are two mosques
and one has a larger congregation than the other, then it is better to pray
in the one that has the larger congregation.

Al-Sharh al-Mumti’, 4/150, 151.

Some of the scholars are of the view that
congregations do not vary in virtue or reward, because of the hadeeth of Ibn
‘Umar (may Allaah be pleased with him), which says that the Messenger of
Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Praying in
congregation is twenty-seven times better than praying alone.” Agreed upon.
So any congregation is twenty-seven times better and no differentiation is
made between one congregation and another.

But this argument was refuted by the following.

Waliy al-Deen al-‘Iraaqi said:

The hadeeth does not offer any evidence for
those who take it to mean that all congregations are equal, because we say
that the least that you will gain is the multiple reward mentioned; that
does not mean that the reward may not also be multiplied further for another
reason such as the size of the congregation, the honoured status of the
mosque, travelling a long way to the mosque and so on.

Tarh al-Tathreeb, 2/301, 302.

This means that if the congregation consists of two or more,
the multiple reward mentioned in the hadeeth (twenty-seven times) will be
attained. That does not mean that the reward may not be increased for other
reasons as well, such as the size of the congregation.

And Allaah knows best.