Is the greeting of the mosque (two rak'ahs) obligatory if a person does not pray it, and is he sinful if he leaves it? We ask for your guidance, may you be rewarded.

The questioner : He has a set of questions, starting with this one: "Is the greeting of the mosque (two rak'ahs) obligatory if a person does not pray it, and is he sinful if he leaves it? We ask for your guidance, may you be rewarded?"

The Shaykh : Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and I send prayers and peace upon our Prophet Muhammad, and upon his family and all his Companions. The greeting of the mosque, if a person enters the mosque while in a state of wudu', is a very confirmed sunnah. It is authentically reported from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that he said: It is also authentically reported that he was delivering the Friday sermon when a man entered and sat down, so the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said to him: He said, "No." He said: meaning, "be brief." The original ruling for prohibition is that it is forbidden, and the original ruling for command is that it is obligatory, until there is evidence that diverts from that. For this reason, the scholars (may Allah have mercy on them) differed regarding the greeting of the mosque: is it obligatory or a sunnah? The majority of scholars hold that it is a sunnah and not obligatory, while some held that it is obligatory and that a person is sinful for leaving it. According to the view that it is a sunnah, a person is not sinful for leaving it, because if a person performs the sunnahs, he is rewarded for them, and if he leaves them, he is not punished for them.
The view that it is obligatory is a strong view. It is strengthened by the fact that the original ruling for prohibition is that it is forbidden, and the original ruling for command is that it is obligatory. It is also strengthened by the fact that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) interrupted his Friday sermon to order this man to pray. It is also strengthened by the fact that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) ordered this man to occupy himself with prayer instead of listening to the sermon. Listening to the sermon is obligatory, and one does not occupy oneself with something instead of an obligation unless that thing is equally obligatory or more so.
Therefore, we encourage our Muslim brothers to pray two rak'ahs when they enter the mosque while in a state of purity, before they sit, due to the command of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) to do so and his prohibition of sitting before praying. There is no difference in this between entering the mosque during the prohibited times or outside the prohibited times. If he enters during the morning (duha), or after the midday prayer, or after the night prayer, or after the sunset prayer, let him pray before he sits. Likewise, if he enters after the dawn prayer, or when the sun is at its zenith in the middle of the day, or after the afternoon prayer, he does not sit until he prays, due to the generality of the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): This generality is undoubtedly opposed by the generality of the prohibition of prayer during the prohibited times. However, this generality is preserved, whereas the hadiths prohibiting prayer during the prohibited times are not preserved, meaning that they have been subjected to specification. It is known among the scholars of usul al-fiqh that the preserved general text takes precedence over the specified general text, because the specification of a general text indicates that its generality is not intended, thereby weakening the intention of generality for all cases. In contrast, the preserved general text that has not been specified indicates that its generality is intended.
Likewise, according to the stronger view, every voluntary prayer that has a cause is performed during the prohibited times, because if it is performed during the prohibited times, it is attributed to its known cause, which makes it unlikely that the intention is to imitate the disbelievers who prostrate to the sun when it rises and when it sets.
Someone might ask: Why do we not affirm the view that praying the two rak'ahs is obligatory for the one who enters the mosque in a state of purity? We say that we do not affirm this because there is a doubt that prevents this affirmation, which is that when the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) entered the mosque on Friday, he would ascend the minbar and not pray two rak'ahs. It can be said that this is a specification, and it can be said that it is not a specification, because his proceeding to the minbar and ascending it is for the sermon, which is a prerequisite for the Friday prayer, and it is one of the accessories, not an independent act.
In any case, what I see is that the view that it is obligatory is very, very strong, but I do not dare to declare that one is sinful for not praying the two rak'ahs. It should be known that if a person enters the Sacred Mosque in order to perform tawaf, then tawaf suffices for the two rak'ahs, because when the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) entered the Sacred Mosque during his 'Umrah, and likewise during his Hajj in the tawaf of ifadah, it is not reported that he prayed two rak'ahs. It has become well-known among many people that the greeting of the Sacred Mosque is tawaf, but this is not absolute. Rather, the greeting of the Sacred Mosque is tawaf for the one who enters to perform tawaf. As for the one who enters to pray, or to recite, or to listen to dhikr, or the like, then the Sacred Mosque is like other mosques, and its greeting is the prayer of two rak'ahs.