The Answer to the Hadith of Abu Sa'id al-Khudri (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: Two men went out on a journey; the time for prayer arrived, and they had no water with them.

The Shaykh : As for the question about the two men who performed dry ablution and prayed, then found water, where one of them repeated the prayer after performing ablution, and the other did not repeat the prayer, the Messenger (may the prayers and peace of Allah be upon him) said to the one who did not repeat the prayer: , and he said to the one who repeated the prayer: . As for this phrase that was inserted into this hadith: "So you have the reward of a collected share"; this phrase is strange.

The questioner: Peace be upon you.

The Shaykh: And upon you peace.
First: I do not know of it being reported in an authentic hadith. Second: I do not know the meaning of this statement. As for the hadith in "Sunan Abu Dawud" and others, that he (peace and blessings be upon him) said to the one who repeated the prayer after finding water and performing ablution: .
Some people assume, as mentioned at the end of the question, that the truth is multiple. We say: There is absolutely nothing of that in this hadith. Rather, it contains an affirmation of Islamic principles and legal rules. Among them is His saying (Blessed and Exalted is He): , and His saying (peace and blessings be upon him): ; meaning, if a jurist exerts his independent legal reasoning in something, even if he is wrong, he is rewarded. Here we find two men who were companions in a journey, and the time for prayer caught them, so they performed dry ablution and prayed because they did not find water. When they found water, one of them was content with his prayer of dry ablution, and the other performed ablution and repeated the prayer. We do not doubt that this latter man came with an action that the first did not. This one who repeated the prayer with ablution came with an action that the first did not. So does our Lord (Mighty and Majestic) waste the action of this person? We mentioned the previous verse: . What did this person do? He prayed and performed ablution. This is all good, especially since he did not have revelation descending upon him to inform him of what his position should be. So the man exerted his independent legal reasoning and said: Since I have found water now, I will perform ablution and pray. So he prayed. Allah does not waste the work of those who do good. This man did good; therefore, he (peace and blessings be upon him) said to him: . The first time, when you did not find water, you performed dry ablution, and this is by the explicit text of the Qur'an: . So you executed the Qur'anic text. The second time, you exerted your independent legal reasoning and saw that you were performing the prayer in what you thought was the most complete manner, so you performed ablution and prayed. ; once for your prayer with dry ablution, and once for your prayer with ablution. But he (peace and blessings be upon him) said to the first man: .
Now, the issue here is: which one was correct? The one to whom he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: , or the one to whom he said: ? Here the matter becomes confused for some people. Among them is one who says: By Allah, the correct truth was with the first one, to whom he (peace be upon him) said: ; because whoever hits the Sunnah, his opponent has hit religious innovation; he opposed the Sunnah. The one who hits the Sunnah, the one who explicitly opposes him has opposed the Sunnah. But we find that the Messenger (peace be upon him) said to the second what he said to him: You did not oppose the Sunnah. The reason is very clear; because this second man did not have the Sunnah at that time. He did not have the Sunnah to be told: You opposed the Sunnah. Rather, he exerted his independent legal reasoning just as the first one did. But we today must apply this incident to ourselves. Suppose we are on a journey, the time for prayer catches us, and we do not find water, so we perform dry ablution. Then, shortly after, we find water; do we repeat the prayer? If we remember that the Messenger said to the one who did not repeat it: ; then we want to hit the Sunnah, so we do not repeat the prayer.
The other, the second one, might say, he performs ablution and repeats the prayer, saying: I have a precedent in the second one to whom the Messenger (peace be upon him) said: ; we say: No, you do not have a precedent to follow that jurist; because "there is no independent legal reasoning in the place of an explicit text." When a person exerts his independent legal reasoning and there is no explicit text before him, he is rewarded; if he hits the mark, two rewards, and if he errs, one reward. But when there is an explicit text before him, there is no independent legal reasoning in the place of an explicit text. And we, praise be to Allah, have now reached the Sunnah, and we know that whoever prayed with dry ablution within the time has performed the obligatory duty upon him, and it is not upon him to repeat the prayer with ablution; because Allah (Mighty and Majestic) legislated, through the tongue of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), two hadiths. The first hadith: . So when you prayed with dry ablution, did you do what Allah obligated upon you? The answer: Yes, . Well, if you know that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said: ; why do you repeat this prayer without permission from Allah or His Messenger? This is the first hadith.
The second hadith: When the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), in one of his expeditions—and it was perhaps the Expedition of Khaybar—descended into the valley tired, and slept, and entrusted Bilal to wake him for the dawn prayer. And Bilal (may Allah be pleased with him), out of his eagerness to perform this duty that the Messenger (peace be upon him) entrusted to him, leaned against the back of his camel, and his face was toward the east; until when the dawn broke with the light of the morning, he felt it, and stood up and woke the people. But the wisdom and will of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) decreed that none of the people of the camp woke up until the sun had struck their backs. The point of the hadith is long and well-known. And when they all woke up after the sun had risen, the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) ordered the call to prayer and the second call, and they prayed the recommended practice of the dawn prayer and they prayed the obligatory prayer. But he saw on the faces of the people some sadness, perhaps they were being held accountable by Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He); because they prayed the prayer outside its time. So he said to them (peace and blessings be upon him): , meaning: intentionally or deliberately, or as he (peace be upon him) said. Here the question came—and here is the point—they said to him: O Messenger of Allah, do we pray it tomorrow? Meaning, another time? He said: , ; meaning, he is ordering you now so that you pray the prayer twice, . This is the first hadith, and this is the second hadith.
So, this one who prayed the prayer with dry ablution because he did not find water has performed what Allah obligated upon him; therefore, it is not permissible for him to repeat this prayer; because he knows the Sunnah, and it says: .
So, this hadith does not mean that the Messenger approved the independent legal reasoning of this one and that one; no, rather it means that the Messenger (peace be upon him) clarified the correct path for each of them. But he clarified at the same time that Allah does not waste the reward of one who does good work. This second man exerted his independent legal reasoning, so the reward of this prayer was recorded for him in addition to his first prayer; therefore, it is not permissible to use this incident as evidence that the wise Lawgiver has multiple truths, as this incident occurred in two different ways; one did not pray, and the other prayed. We said: The Messenger has ruled with an explicit ruling. He said to the one who did not repeat it: , and opposing the Sunnah is religious innovation, so it is not permissible to repeat the prayer for one who prayed with dry ablution. That one repeated it because he was unaware of the Sunnah; therefore, they said: "There is no independent legal reasoning in the place of an explicit text."