The ruling on the sitting for rest and whether it is performed behind the imam?

The questioner : ...؟

The Shaykh : Your question has two parts: Is the sitting for rest a recommended practice, and the other part is whether the one behind the imam follows him in it or not? As for the answer to the first part, the sitting for rest is a recommended practice, and one should not be misled by the research of the scholar Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah in his book "Zad al-Ma'ad fi Hady Khayr al-'Ibad" in this issue, where he stands up to say that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) did it out of need, not as a recommended practice and legislation for people. This view contradicts what is established in Sahih al-Bukhari and elsewhere, that Abu Humayd al-Sa'idi said to his companions one day, while they were sitting, about ten of them: "Shall I show you the prayer of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family)? They said: You are not the most knowledgeable of us about his prayer. He said: Yes, I am. They said: Then show it to us." So he described to them the prayer of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), and when he stood up from the second prostration to the second unit, he sat in this sitting, then stood up, then completed his description of his prayer (peace and blessings be upon him). So the answer of the other companions was: "You have spoken the truth; this was the prayer of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family)." Then there is a hadith in Sahih al-Bukhari from the narration of Malik ibn al-Huwayris, who says: "The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) used to, when he was in an odd number of units of prayer, stand up leaning on his hands." Here there is an indication of the sitting for rest. As for the first hadith, it is explicit. The point is: how can it be said that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) did this in prayer, and his companions witnessed it, and the matter is as he (peace and blessings be upon him) said in another hadith on a different occasion? Ibn Qayyim or others may offer an explanation after seven centuries, but Abu Humayd al-Sa'idi and his companions from the Companions are describing what they saw with their own eyes. If the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) had done it out of need when he was old and advanced in age, as some of the later scholars say, that would not have been hidden from the witnessing Companions of his prayer (peace and blessings be upon him), especially since Abu Humayd al-Sa'idi seemed to be challenging his companions to say to them: I know the prayer of the Messenger better than you. But even so, they believed him and said to him: "You have spoken the truth; this was the prayer of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family)." Therefore, it is clear that if the Companions transmitted to us the description of the prayer, and in it is the sitting for rest, and if the Messenger had done it out of need, they would have understood that better than the later scholars who did not witness his prayer (peace and blessings be upon him). For this reason, Imam al-Nawawi emphasizes in his great book "al-Majmu' Sharh al-Muhadhdhab" that it is obligatory to pay attention to preserving this recommended practice because of its establishment from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) from those Companions.
As for the second part of the question, if the imam does not perform the recommended practice of the sitting for rest, the one behind him should not delay it, but should follow him, because following the imam is one of the obligations of prayer, as he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: This is a very great hadith in emphasizing the following of the one behind the imam, even if he neglects some of the recommended practices, because following is more obligatory than the recommended practices. In this hadith, the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) dropped a pillar of the prayer from the one behind the imam, which is standing, as He (Mighty and Majestic) said in the Qur'an: And as he (peace and blessings be upon him) said in Sahih al-Bukhari from the hadith of 'Imran ibn Husayn: This standing, which is a pillar of the pillars of prayer, was dropped by the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) from the one behind the imam for nothing other than his following of the imam. So it is even more appropriate to follow the imam if he leaves a recommended practice. This is the answer to the second part of the question.