If a man arrives at the lecture and finds them in prayer, and he has already prayed in his mosque, should he join them in prayer or wait until they complete their prayer and he prays the greeting of the mosque so that he can catch the lecture?

The questioner : He says: May the honor of the father be preserved. One of us comes to this gathering and finds your honor in prayer, and his goal is to attend this gathering. Then he falls into a dilemma: should he join you in prayer in obedience to the command of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), even if he misses part of the gathering? Or should he wait outside, and when you finish, he enters and prays the greeting of the mosque and attends in the first row, missing nothing? In fact, the dilemma increases if we come to the funeral prayer with you here in the mosque, having already prayed in our mosques. If we stand to complete what we missed of the prayer, we miss the funeral prayer. So what should we do? I hope you will elaborate so that we may get out of this dilemma, for Allah has not placed any hardship upon us in the religion. May Allah benefit His servants with you. Amen.

The Shaykh : Yes, I say there is no blame, and praise be to Allah. If you come to this gathering and find us in prayer, enter with us in obedience to the command of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) in his saying: If we are in the first rak'ah, you finish with us; or if in the second, you miss one rak'ah; or in the third, you miss two rak'ahs; or in the fourth, you miss three rak'ahs. And you can stand and make up what you missed before we begin the gathering, because the people after the taslim remember Allah, glorify Allah, and recite the Verse of the Throne, and "Say, He is Allah, the One," and "Say, I seek refuge with the Lord of the dawn," and "Say, I seek refuge with the Lord of mankind." This is a long time in which a person can make up what he missed of the 'Isha' prayer, and there is no blame in this. And this, by Allah, is better than you remaining outside the mosque and missing this great reward with this prayer. Perhaps your saying in this prayer, "O Allah, forgive me," will be a cause for Allah to forgive you.
As for the funeral, it is the same thing. If you come and the people are praying, enter with them. Your obedience to the command of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) in entering with this congregation may be better than your waiting and then praying over the funeral. Then, when the imam finishes and you have missed, for example, three rak'ahs, you can make them up during the time it takes to bring the funeral, if it is, for example, at the back of the mosque. Or you can, if the imam does as we do, when we see a large group making up their prayer, we ask the people of the funeral to delay bringing it forward until the prayer of these people is finished, so they can join us in the prayer. And by this, there is an abundance of supplication for the deceased. And perhaps the supplication will be answered by one of these people who are making up what they missed of the prayer, we do not know. For this reason, it is recommended for imams, if they see that there is a large group in the mosque making up their prayer, to say to the people of the deceased, "Wait for these people. They did not come except to pray over the deceased. Do not deprive them. Wait." And it does not harm to wait five minutes or more; it does not harm. Yes.