Is it permissible for a man who enters the mosque after the congregational prayer has ended to pray a second congregation with another man who has already prayed with the first congregation?

The questioner : But, Shaykh, regarding a man who entered after the first congregation ended and his brother from the same congregation prayed with him, meaning they combined, is this prescribed?

The Shaykh : It is not prescribed. The hadith they cite on this occasion has no relation to this specific scenario you asked about earlier. That is, the hadith of Abu Sa'id al-Khudri, which states that a man entered the mosque after the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) had prayed, and he said to those around him: . So a man stood up and prayed with him. This has no relation whatsoever to the subject of the discussion. To clarify this briefly and in detail: the brief point is that this prayer is not the second congregational prayer in the sense that both of them were praying what they missed from the first congregation. In fact, one of them, the one who followed the one who missed the first congregation, was performing a voluntary prayer. So this is a voluntary prayer, not an obligatory prayer. The discussion concerns the obligatory prayer when people enter the mosque and find that the imam has already prayed; do they pray a second congregation? That is the subject of the discussion.
As for the details, we say: what we mentioned earlier becomes clear by answering the second question. For example, if three men enter the mosque and one of them leads them in a second congregation, who is the one performing the voluntary prayer and giving charity to the others, and who are the ones receiving the charity? If we think about answering this question, we cannot answer it, and we cannot say that the two who gave charity to the imam are the ones who received it, because in reality, each of these three is poor in a spiritual sense, because they missed the first congregation, just as the man who entered the mosque missed it while the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) had already prayed. He is poor because he missed approximately twenty-five or twenty-seven degrees of the prayer. Meanwhile, the one who followed behind him is full and rich, and he is the one who gives charity to this poor man who missed the first congregational prayer and is being followed. This scenario cannot be seen in any congregation where an obligatory congregational prayer is performed after the first congregations.

The questioner : But, for example, a man who was slightly late for the first congregation entered and found that they had finished, so he said to his brother from the same congregation, who is rich, "Give me charity and pray with me." This is different from the case where two men who have not prayed enter. I heard from you before that you permitted this scenario where a man from the first congregation, whom it is appropriate to say "gave charity," prays. Is this scenario permissible, or is the prohibited scenario when two men enter and one gives charity to the other?

The Shaykh : ... And what we are saying is: the hadith we mentioned earlier, which is the hadith of Abu Sa'id, is prescribed to be acted upon until the Day of Resurrection.

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : Because it is not permissible to invalidate a hadith of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) without evidence. So if this scenario is repeated, we permit it. This scenario has no relation to the subject of the first question, meaning that this incident should not be taken as evidence for the legitimacy of the second and third congregations and all these congregations, as they are congregations for the obligatory prayer, not voluntary congregations, as is the case in the hadith of Abu Sa'id al-Khudri. If a man enters and sees that the people have prayed, he prays alone. If a man who prayed with the first congregation stands up and he follows him, he has actually given him charity.

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : This scenario is permissible, but to use this incident as evidence for the legitimacy of the second congregation and those beyond it is incorrect reasoning, as we mentioned earlier, because there is no one giving charity and no one receiving it.

The questioner : If someone says that in the hadith of Abu Sa'id, it does not appear to be a voluntary prayer, but the hadith is general regarding all prayers, how do we know it is voluntary and not obligatory?

The Shaykh : Where do we take the generality from? The generality is not hidden from you; it is taken from a verbal text. As for a specific incident, specific incidents do not have generality, as the scholars say. This is an incident that occurred, so either it was for an obligatory prayer or for a voluntary prayer. If it was for an obligatory prayer, that is impossible, because the story explicitly states: he said (peace and blessings be upon him) to those around him: . The ones the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) was speaking to were those who had already prayed the obligatory prayer.

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : And you know the saying of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him): , meaning on the basis of the obligatory prayer. So the one who followed this man who entered was only performing a voluntary prayer and was not performing an obligatory one. Therefore, the incident, in brief, is a specific case with no generality.

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : And secondly, it explicitly states that the one who prayed behind that man who entered was only performing a voluntary prayer and was not performing an obligatory one, because .

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : And therefore, if someone says what I mentioned earlier, he is undoubtedly forcing an interpretation and saying what he does not know.