The ruling on entering the prayer with the imam during the final tashahhud
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
May Allah reward you, Honorable Shaykh. This questioner says: It happens in this mosque, and perhaps in others, that if a person is late for the Maghrib prayer, he arrives while the imam is in the final tashahhud. The question is: Do we enter the prayer with him, or do we wait for another congregation? And which is better and more preferable?
Answer:
If you know that there are people, or you see people who have entered, then you pray in congregation. However, you do not establish the congregation until the imam says the taslim, because a congregation is not established at the same time. When the imam says the taslim, you establish it. So that is the congregation. But if you are with no one and you do not know of anyone, enter with the imam in whatever remains of the prayer so that you may obtain the reward of following the imam.
May Allah reward you, Honorable Shaykh. This questioner says: It happens in this mosque, and perhaps in others, that if a person is late for the Maghrib prayer, he arrives while the imam is in the final tashahhud. The question is: Do we enter the prayer with him, or do we wait for another congregation? And which is better and more preferable?
Answer:
If you know that there are people, or you see people who have entered, then you pray in congregation. However, you do not establish the congregation until the imam says the taslim, because a congregation is not established at the same time. When the imam says the taslim, you establish it. So that is the congregation. But if you are with no one and you do not know of anyone, enter with the imam in whatever remains of the prayer so that you may obtain the reward of following the imam.
Source
إدراك الإمام في التشهد الأخير — alfawzan.live
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.