Performing the Sunnah Prayers: Are They Obligatory at Home? And Are They Better Than in the Mosque?

The Shaykh : Because the obligatory duty is to perform the prescribed prayers in the mosques, not in the houses or in any other place besides them. And this place is like any other of our houses that we live in and take shelter in; only the voluntary prayers are performed in it, not the obligatory ones. And we, acting in accordance with this Sunnah which the majority of people have let die out—and I do not exclude their special ones from this; they perform the Sunnah prayers in the mosques just like the obligatory ones—knowing that it is agreed upon by all scholars, with no disagreement among them, that the voluntary prayers are better in the houses. They agreed on this because of the continuous transmission of many hadiths encouraging this, such as his saying (peace and blessings be upon him) in "Sahih al-Bukhari and Muslim": , and he also said (peace and blessings be upon him): . Because of these hadiths and others, we try, in most cases, to pray the Sunnah prayers in a place other than the mosque where we pray the obligatory prayer. So I come here immediately from the mosque; sometimes I pray the Sunnah and the Witr here, and sometimes at home. If someone sees me praying here, it is only the Sunnah prayer, while the obligatory prayer is in the mosque. So I have not forbidden prayer here for this type of prayer, which is the Sunnah; rather, I encourage it. On the contrary, I encourage our brothers not to be lazy in performing the obligatory prayer in the mosques, and not to come here to establish another congregation; because the congregation must be in the mosque. But if the obligatory prayer is missed in the mosque due to a valid religious excuse, and then he comes to this place, there is no harm in him praying in congregation here with some of those who are in his situation. This is a reminder.
And there is another reminder that some of our brothers drew your attention to just now; and that is: do not raise your voices in conversation with one another. This advice was in its proper place, and the response to it was a double error; because the one giving advice ordered not to raise voices so as not to disturb those who are praying; whether their prayer is voluntary or it is an obligatory prayer that they missed in the mosque.
So we must observe here two matters:
The first is: it must be a continuous, permanent rule. So in this place, voices should not be raised, whether there is someone praying or not; because this is part of the etiquette of gatherings.
And the other matter is: striving to perform the obligatory prayer in the mosque; if it is missed, there is no harm in gathering here, while waiting for the lesson to begin, the one who missed the obligatory prayer prays either alone or with a group of those in his situation.
This is the reminder, and it benefits the believers—if Allah wills.