Is it permissible for a traveler to join the imam in the last two rak'ahs of the Dhuhr prayer, for example, and conclude the prayer with the imam?

The questioner : Now, regarding the prayer of the traveler.

The Shaykh: Yes.

The questioner : I am, for example, a traveler here. Is it permissible for me to join the imam in a four-rak'ah prayer in the last two rak'ahs and then conclude the prayer with him?

The Shaykh : No, it is not permissible for you to conclude the prayer with him, because when you followed the resident imam, your prayer as a traveler became the prayer of a resident.

The questioner : I mean, there is an additional question on my mind, which is...

The Shaykh : This is the first time this has come to mind...

The questioner : And that is the following of the ma'mum by the imam, in the case where it is from the beginning of the prayer. I mean, I followed him, so he was in the last two rak'ahs, and I concluded the prayer with him. Ibn Hazm, as I recall, permits the traveler to join in the last two rak'ahs and conclude the prayer.

The Shaykh : I am still waiting for what is on your mind. So, what is on your mind? You repeated the question, but you only added the mention of Ibn Hazm. Is that what is on your mind? The matter is still as you heard, but perhaps you want the evidence for that?

The questioner : Yes, exactly.
The student : I need the answer to the thought on my mind.

The Shaykh : First, Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him) was asked about a person from afar who comes to Makkah to perform Hajj or 'Umrah. He said:The questioner : "When we pray with you in the Sacred Mosque, how many rak'ahs do we pray?" He said: "Exactly the sunnah of your Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him)." Or as Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him) said. The narration is in Sahih Muslim and in the Musnad of Imam Ahmad, and it is clearer in the Musnad than in the narration of Muslim. If that is the case, then the hadith is explicit that the one who travels, the traveler who prays behind the resident imam, is not as Ibn Hazm says, that he concludes the prayer at the end of two rak'ahs. And in that case, the answer to the scenario you asked about is derived from what has preceded: it is not permissible for him to limit himself to a two-rak'ah prayer and not complete it by making up the first two rak'ahs. This is one thing.
And another thing: His saying (peace and blessings be upon him): Or perhaps I combined two hadiths, even though I did not deviate from the Shari'ah ruling in doing so. The hadith in its wording in the two Sahihs is: If the first hadith, the hadith of Ibn Abbas, is explicit in its indication that the person from afar, when he prays behind the resident, prays with his prayer at that time, we understand from the last hadith: that he must complete it.
And this hadith indicates to us something in which scholars have differed, both in the past and the present, which is: what the masbuq missed, what he missed of the prayer, is it the beginning of his prayer or the end of it? Or in other words, what he caught of the prayer while he was a masbuq behind the imam, is it the beginning of his prayer or the end of it? The answer: There are two opinions in this issue. The opinion of the Hanafis is that what he caught of the prayer behind the imam is the end of his prayer, and what he will complete is the beginning of the prayer. And the opinion of the Shafi'is and the majority is the opposite, and that is the correct one, due to his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): .
The Hanafis responded to the Shafi'is' argument with this by saying: But there is a narration in Sahih al-Bukhari: So the text is about making up (qada'), and this supports the Hanafi school because he makes up the two preceding, first rak'ahs. So the majority responded that the second wording, "faqdu" (so make up), in Arabic means the same as the first, because interpreting "faqdu" as performing the act of worship outside its time is an interpretation that considered the jurisprudential terminology and did not consider the language. Because Allah says, for example: the Friday prayer. What is the meaning of "you have completed the prayer"? You completed it, meaning. Similarly, Allah the Exalted said: "when you have completed your rituals," meaning you completed them. So in that case, his saying: is in the meaning of the previous narration, "so complete it." Now, as for the rest...