What is the stronger position regarding the issue of the greeting prayer of the mosque during the prohibited times?

The questioner : ... after the Fajr prayer, if one of you enters the mosque?

The Shaykh : And the answer, after praise to Allah and prayers and peace upon the Messenger of Allah, is that this is one of the jurisprudential issues on which the jurists have differed, holding two positions. The first position is permissibility, which is the one we choose. The second position is prohibition, which we consider the weaker position and not the one we choose. The reason for this preference is that we looked at the evidence of the opposing side and found that they have nothing but the general evidence that every jurist relies upon, which is the principle regarding the prohibition of prayer in the disliked times. For example, his saying (peace be upon him): . We examined this hadith and found that many specific exceptions have entered it, just as in other hadiths with similar meanings. The first exception that applies to the second part of this hadith is the hadith of 'Ali ibn Abi Talib (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: "The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) prohibited prayer after 'Asr except if the sun is high and clear." This hadith specifies the second part of the first hadith, which is his saying: . This second hadith specifies the generality of the first hadith: "Prayer is prohibited after 'Asr except if the sun is high and clear." Consequently, the hadith:
Then, exceptions also entered the first part of the hadith, just like the second part. For example, his saying (peace be upon him): . This hadith indicates that the time for the prayer of one who forgot it or slept through it is when he wakes up or remembers it. This hadith is considered a specifier of the first hadith, and the jurisprudential result is: "There is no prayer after Fajr until the sun rises, except the forgotten prayer or the one slept through; so he prays it, even if it is after Fajr or even after 'Asr."
This is also one of the specifiers of the first hadith. And among those specifiers is also the hadith: . This hadith also specifies the general prohibition mentioned in the first hadith, so the result is...
... as came in "al-Sahihayn" from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that he said to Bilal one day: . He said: O Messenger of Allah, I do not know except that whenever I perform ablution, I feel that I have two rak'ahs owed to Allah. He said (peace be upon him): . All these hadiths specify the prohibition mentioned in the first hadith, as we mentioned regarding the previous specifiers. Here, with this hadith of Bilal, another specifier is added, so the hadith: becomes except for the Sunnah of ablution.
Also, among the specifiers that applied to the first part of the first hadith is what al-Tirmidhi and others narrated that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) prayed Fajr one day in the mosque as was his custom. When he finished the prayer, he saw a man standing and praying, so he said to him (peace be upon him): , disapproving of this addition he had made to the obligatory Fajr prayer. When that man finished his prayer, and it was two rak'ahs, he said: O Messenger of Allah, I entered the mosque and found you praying the obligatory prayer, so I prayed, and these are the two rak'ahs of Fajr. So he (peace be upon him) approved it and did not disapprove of it. Thus, it became an exception to his saying (peace be upon him):
The purpose of mentioning these specifiers of the hadith prohibiting prayer after Fajr and 'Asr is to clarify the following: There is a science in the terminology of hadith called the Science of the Differences of Hadith. They state that if two hadiths from the category of acceptable hadiths are contradictory, it is obligatory to reconcile them in one of the ways of reconciliation if possible. If that is not possible, one proceeds to considering the abrogating and the abrogated; meaning, if it can be established that one is abrogating and the other is abrogated, the reconciliation is by this consideration.

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : And upon you be peace and the mercy of Allah.
If it is not possible to consider the abrogating and the abrogated between them, one proceeds to preference based on the chain of narration, taking the one with the stronger chain and leaving the one with the weaker strength. If preference is not possible, which is the third level, then one suspends judgment and leaves the matter to its scholar.
We return to the first way of reconciling the two differing hadiths, which are from the category of acceptable hadiths. We say: The scholars of hadith and the scholars of principles have mentioned many ways of reconciling two differing texts without resorting to considering the abrogating and the abrogated, except if reconciliation between the two hadiths is not possible in any of these many ways. Al-Hafiz al-'Iraqi reached more than one hundred ways in his "Hashiyah" on the "Introduction to the Sciences of Ibn al-Salah," each of these hundred ways reconciles the two contradictory hadiths. This means that if the researcher does not find reconciliation by the first way, he moves to the second, and if that is not possible, the third, and so on, the fourth to a hundred and more. Therefore, it is very rare that reconciliation between two contradictory hadiths is not possible, forcing a person to resort to the second level of reconciliation, which is the level of considering the abrogating and the abrogated.
The point is that they mentioned in those hundred and more ways of reconciling two contradictory hadiths: If two texts contradict each other, each of which is general, one looks at these two texts. If one is a general text with a specific exception, and the other is a general text without a specific exception, the general text without the specific exception is applied to the general text with the specific exception, specifying it.
... This statement is obscure to many people because it is a pure technical term from the sciences of hadith and the principles of jurisprudence. However, the example we are about to give will clarify this technical term completely, especially after we have presented the hadiths that specify the generality of his saying (peace be upon him) in the first hadith: .
... We find in the hadith of the greeting two hadiths; one of them is general, covering all times by its generality. That is his saying (peace be upon him) in the hadith of Abu Qatadah al-Ansari, that he entered the mosque and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) was sitting in it, so he sat beside him. He said to him (peace be upon him): . He said: No. He said: . I remind you that this hadith is not the second hadith that follows, which is the hadith of Sulayk al-Ghatafani. Then he (peace be upon him) said to Abu Qatadah: , and in another narration: . This is the hadith of Abu Qatadah al-Ansari in "al-Sahihayn."
And as you see, by its generality it covers every time; because he said: , or , he did not specify one time over another, but he generalized and made it absolute. This confirms for us the generality, and that it is general to the furthest limits of generality, such that it also covers a time from the disliked times. This is supported by the second hadith, which is the hadith of Jabir ibn 'Abd Allah al-Ansari, who said: A man entered on Friday while the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) was delivering the sermon on the pulpit, so he sat down. He said to him (peace be upon him): . His name was Sulayk, and he said: . He said: No. He said: . Then he turned to all those present and said to them: . It is agreed upon, as we mentioned from the hadith of Jabir.
In this hadith, we find that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) commanded the greeting of the mosque in a general manner for anyone who enters the mosque on Friday while the imam is delivering the sermon, to pray two rak'ahs. When we recall the consensus of the scholars on the prohibition of prayer, specifically the absolute voluntary prayer, on Friday while the preacher is delivering the sermon, and when we know that the time when the preacher is delivering the sermon on Friday is among the times in which voluntary prayers are not prescribed, and indeed, not even what is more emphasized than voluntary prayer is prescribed in it, namely enjoining good and forbidding evil, as is also established in the two Sahihs from the hadith of Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: ; therefore, the statement of the one who says to a person who is speaking while the preacher is delivering the sermon on Friday, "Be silent," is considered by the Wise Lawgiver as idle talk. This means that it is not permissible for one who hears a man speaking while the preacher is delivering the sermon on Friday to say to him, "Be silent," and the necessary implication is that enjoining good, which is a known obligation, is dropped in the case where the preacher is delivering the sermon on Friday.
If this is the case, and we recall the hadith of Sulayk al-Ghatafani mentioned earlier, in which the Messenger commanded him to pray the greeting of the mosque, and the Messenger commanded all those present that if one of them enters the mosque on Friday while the preacher is delivering the sermon, he must also pray two rak'ahs; then it results for us that what is disliked of enjoining good during the time of the preacher's sermon on Friday is permissible of the greeting of the mosque in that time, whereas it is not permissible of other obligations. Is there any evidence clearer than this hadith that the greeting of the mosque is prayed in a time of dislike? We have known and it has become clear to us that the time when the preacher is delivering the sermon on Friday is a time of dislike, and yet the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) commanded the greeting of the mosque in this time, in this disliked time, and we know then that there is no difference between a disliked time and another time...