What should a person do if he enters the mosque while the mu'adhdhin is calling the adhan?

The questioner : If a person enters the mosque and the mu'adhdhin is calling the adhan, does he pray? Does he stand? What does he do?

The Shaykh : Is there someone here who can answer?

The questioner:...

The Shaykh : No, with your permission, but we need to maintain the quiet of the gathering as we have done throughout this time, and praise be to Allah. You all heard this question: he entered the mosque and the adhan is being called, what does he do? Does he wait standing and respond to the mu'adhdhin? Or does he begin the greeting of the mosque? The answer, in general cases, is that he waits and responds to the mu'adhdhin, as you heard in the previous hadith and so on. This is for general circumstances, except in one case, which we see every Friday. A person enters the mosque, the khatib is on the minbar, and the mu'adhdhin has started the adhan. What does he do? They stand like this until they respond to the mu'adhdhin. This is a mistake in this specific case only. Why? Because if he remains standing responding to the mu'adhdhin, he is in obedience, in worship. But what is the ruling on this worship? Is it obligatory (fard)? No. Is it obligatory (wajib)? No. Is it recommended (mustahabb)? Yes, it is recommended. But look at what will result from this recommended act. He will begin, after finishing the response completely, the two rak'ahs of the greeting of the mosque, and the khatib will have stood up and started the prayer, or rather, the sermon. So a portion of the sermon that he is obligated to listen to will pass him by because he was occupied with responding to the mu'adhdhin. This issue is a branch of dozens, indeed hundreds, of branches that fall under the rule that if a Muslim is caught between two harms or two evils, he chooses the lesser of them. Now, he either begins the greeting or he begins the response. But if he occupies himself with the response, he will be occupied with the prayer while the khatib is preaching, whereas the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) ordered the attendees not to occupy themselves with prayer unless they entered while the khatib was preaching. In this case, he must pray two rak'ahs as the greeting of the mosque, based on his (peace and blessings be upon him) saying: meaning he should make them brief. As for you, you entered and the khatib has not yet started, so why do you stand waiting to respond to the mu'adhdhin? It would have been good if you had done so before, in which case you should respond to this adhan. But to delay like this until you respond, and then the imam begins the sermon while you have not yet started the prayer, this is a mistake. So in this case, he begins the greeting and does not obligate himself to respond, because the greeting is more important than the response. As for other times, like Dhuhr, 'Asr, etc., he does not sit until he has responded to the mu'adhdhin. In this case, he combines two benefits, unlike the first case. In this case, he responds to the mu'adhdhin and at the same time does not sit, thereby contradicting the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) who said in the authentic hadith: or in another wording So here he combines the command to pray two rak'ahs and then sit, with the command to respond to the mu'adhdhin So stand for your prayers, if Allah wills.