Is the hadith of Anas (may Allah be pleased with him), in which he prayed Fajr with a congregation after the first congregation had ended, cited as evidence for the permissibility of repeating the second congregation?

The questioner : In "Musannaf 'Abd al-Razzaq," it is stated that the Companion Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) prayed the Fajr prayer with the Tabi'un after the first congregation had ended.

The Shaykh: Yes.

The questioner : So, do we cite this report as evidence for the obligation of the second congregation?

The Shaykh : No. If you had remembered the condition I mentioned earlier, you would have known that this report does not indicate the opposite of what was stated. I told you that Imam al-Shafi'i (may Allah have mercy on him) and other imams ruled that repeating the congregation is not prescribed in a mosque that has a regular imam and a regular mu'adhdhin. The report of Anas is only valid as evidence if the mosque in question is described as having a regular imam and a regular mu'adhdhin. This description is certainly not present in the report. It is not correct to say that the hadith or the report is general, because generality and universality apply to legislative texts, not to reports of actual events. An actual event has no generality. That mosque had one of two characteristics: either it had a regular imam and a regular mu'adhdhin, or it did not. Since the mosque is not described as having a regular imam and a regular mu'adhdhin, citing this report as evidence is invalid. This is from one perspective. From another perspective, even if the report explicitly stated that the mosque had a regular imam and a regular mu'adhdhin, we would say: this is the action of a Companion who contradicted the actions of the other Companions, led by 'Abdullah ibn Mas'ud, let alone the other group described by al-Hasan al-Basri when he said: "The Companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), when they entered the mosque and found that the imam had already prayed, would pray individually." Thus, there is a conflict between the practice of the group of Companions, led by Ibn Mas'ud, as evidenced by the report of al-Tabarani in "al-Mu'jam al-Kabir," and the report of Anas ibn Malik. Undoubtedly, the soul is more at ease with the practice of the group of Companions than with the action of one individual who acted contrary to the group, especially since the group included Ibn Mas'ud, who was far more knowledgeable in jurisprudence than Anas ibn Malik.