The Shaykh’s reminder to his students regarding the recommendation of performing voluntary prayers at home, the obligation of performing obligatory prayers in the mosque, and not raising one’s voice in the gathering.

The Shaykh: 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 any other home we live in and take shelter in; only voluntary prayers are performed in it, not obligatory ones. In practice of this Sunnah, which the majority of people have let die, and I do not exclude their special ones from this, they perform the Sunnahs in the mosques just like the obligatory prayers. Knowing that it is agreed upon by all scholars, with no disagreement among them, that voluntary prayers are better in homes. They agreed on this because of the many hadiths encouraging it, such as his saying (peace and blessings be upon him) in "Sahih al-Bukhari and Muslim": , and he also said (peace and blessings be upon him): .
Because of these hadiths and others, we try most of the time to perform the Sunnahs in a place other than the mosque where we perform the obligatory prayer. So I come here immediately from the mosque; sometimes I perform the Sunnah and the witr here, and sometimes at home. If someone sees me praying here, it is only the Sunnah. As for the obligatory prayer, it is in the mosque. I have not forbidden prayer here for this kind of prayer, which is the Sunnahs; rather, I encourage it. On the other hand, I encourage our brothers not to be lazy 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. But 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 harm in him praying in congregation there with some of those who are in his situation.
This is a reminder. There is another reminder that some of our brothers recently drew your attention to; it is that you should not raise your voices in conversation with one another. This advice was appropriate, and the response to it was a double error; because the advisor ordered not to raise voices so as not to disturb those who are praying, whether their prayer is voluntary or an obligatory prayer missed in the mosque.
So we must observe two matters here; one of them must be a continuous requirement. This place should not have voices raised in it, whether there is someone praying or not, because this is part of the etiquette of gatherings. The other matter is striving to perform the obligatory prayer in the mosque. If it is missed, there is no harm in gathering here until the lesson begins, so that the one who missed the obligatory prayer prays either alone or with a group of those in his situation.
This is the reminder, and it benefits the believers, if Allah wills.