What is the ruling on the greeting of the mosque for one who enters the mosque before Maghrib?

The questioner : If I enter a short time before the Maghrib adhan, is it permissible for me to pray two rak'ahs or not?

The Shaykh : It is permissible, indeed it is obligatory. What is not permissible is to sit before you pray what is permissible, indeed what is obligatory, due to his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): . The doubt that arises on this occasion for some students of knowledge is that it is a time of dislike, so how is the prayer of greeting permissible? Our answer is from two aspects: the first is deductive, and the second is analogical, from the chapter of a fortiori analogy. As for the first aspect, there is a rule mentioned by the scholars of hadith, the science of terminology, and stated by Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah in reconciling the hadith of greeting with the hadiths prohibiting prayer in the known times. The scholars of hadith, along with Ibn Taymiyyah, say that when two contradictory hadiths come and reconciliation between them is not possible except by applying one to the other, or in other words, by specifying one of the two general texts with the other, they said: if one of the general texts has been specified by other texts, and the other general text has not been specified, then the general text that has been specified by other texts is specified by the general text that has not been specified. The example is our case: his saying (peace and blessings be upon him) . This is a general text because it applies in any circumstance, in any state, and at any time, and the meaning of the hadith is: if you enter the mosque, pray two rak'ahs. This is a general text. This general text is contradicted by . This is also a general text that prohibits all prayer in these two times. So do we specify the hadith of greeting with the hadith prohibiting prayer in these two times? Or do we specify the hadith prohibiting prayer in these two times with the hadith of greeting? The answer is this, and the reason is that the hadith prohibiting prayer in the two times is not in its generality and comprehensiveness, for it has been specified by many, and very many, specifiers.