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﴿ فَاسْأَلُوا أَهْلَ الذِّكْرِ إِن كُنتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ ﴾

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A reminder about the superiority of voluntary prayers in the home and that obligatory prayers are to be performed in the mosque.

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The Shaykh : As for what follows, I must say a word before the lesson, which is by way of a reminder, and a reminder benefits the believers.
Recently, I heard a statement made by one of our brothers, who perhaps did not intend what people understood from it, when he said that the Shaykh forbade praying here in this place. To clarify the truth, and so that facts are not transmitted incorrectly—whether due to poor memory or poor teaching and transmission to others—what we say regarding this place is that it is not a mosque; it has not been designated as a mosque, at least not until now. Therefore, it is obligatory for every Muslim to strive to perform the five prayers in general in the mosques, and specifically regarding this lesson, in the mosque closest to the location of the lesson. This is because it is obligatory to perform the prescribed prayers in the mosques, not in homes or any other place besides them. This place is like our other homes that we inhabit and take refuge in; only voluntary prayers are performed in it, not obligatory ones.
We act in accordance with this Sunnah, which the majority of people have let die, and I do not exclude their distinguished ones from this; they perform the Sunnahs in the mosques just like the obligatory prayers. It is known that all scholars agree, with no disagreement among them, that voluntary prayers are superior in the homes. They agreed on this because of the numerous hadiths encouraging it, such as his saying (peace and blessings be upon him) in "Sahih al-Bukhari and Muslim":
O people, pray in your houses, for the best prayer a person offers is in his house, apart from the prescribed (obligatory) prayers. فصلوا أيها الناس في بيوتكم ؛ فإن أفضل صلاة المرء في بيته إلا المكتوبة
Sunan an-Nasa'i 1599Sahih (Darussalam)
, and he also said (peace and blessings be upon him):
Offer Salat in your homes and do not turn them into graves. صلوا في بيوتكم ، ولا تتَّخذوها قبورًا
Jami` at-Tirmidhi 451Sahih (Darussalam)
. Because of these hadiths and others, we try most of the time to pray the Sunnahs in a place other than the mosque where we pray the obligatory prayer. So I come here immediately from the mosque; sometimes I pray the Sunnah and the Witr here, and sometimes at home. If someone sees me praying here, it is only the Sunnah, while the obligatory prayer is in the mosque. I did not forbid praying here with this type of prayer, which is the Sunnahs; rather, I encourage it. On the contrary, I encourage our brothers not to be negligent in performing the obligatory prayer in the mosques, and not to come here to establish another congregation, because the congregation must be in the mosque. However, if the obligatory prayer is missed in the mosque due to a valid religious excuse, and then he comes to this place, there is no objection to him praying in congregation there with some of those who are in his situation.
This is a reminder.
Source www.al-albany.com

The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.

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