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

The questioner : ... and the imam did not do it?

The Shaykh : So your question has two parts: Is the sitting for rest a recommended practice? And the other part: Does the one following the imam do 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 argues that the Messenger (peace be upon him) did it out of need, and not as a recommended practice and legislation for people. This view contradicts what is established in "Sahih al-Bukhari" and elsewhere that Abu Hamid 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)?" 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 be upon him). 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 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)."
Then there is a hadith in "Sahih al-Bukhari" from the narration of Malik ibn al-Huwayrith, who said: "The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), when he was in an odd number of the prayer, would stand 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 it is correct to say that the Messenger (peace be upon him) did an action in the prayer, and his companions witnessed it, and the matter is as he (peace be upon him) said in another hadith, on a different occasion: . Ibn Qayyim or others may offer an explanation after seven centuries, but Abu Hamid al-Sa'idi and his companions from the Companions; they describe what they saw with their own eyes. If the Messenger (peace be upon him) had done it out of need when he became old and weak—as some of the later scholars say—that would not have been hidden from the witnessing Companions of his prayer (peace be upon him), especially since Abu Hamid al-Sa'idi seemed to be challenging his companions, saying 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)." So 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 for legislation, they would have understood that better than the later scholars who did not witness his prayer (peace be upon him). Therefore, Imam al-Nawawi emphasizes in his great book "al-Majmu' Sharh al-Muhadhdhab" that it is obligatory to take care to preserve this recommended practice, because it is established from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) 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 following him should not delay behind him, but should follow him. Because following the imam is one of the obligations of the prayer, as he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . This is a very great hadith in emphasizing the following of the imam by the one behind him, even if he omitted 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) dropped a pillar of the prayer from the one following him, which is standing, as He (Mighty and Majestic) said in the Qur'an: , and as he (peace be upon him) said in "Sahih al-Bukhari" from the hadith of 'Imran ibn Husayn: . This standing—which is a pillar of the prayer—the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) dropped from the one following him 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.