A note on Imam Ahmad regarding the permissibility of missing the mosque congregation if the gathering is a session of knowledge and good, and there is no harm in holding the congregation there instead of in the mosque

The Shaykh : After our 'Asr prayer in this place, and especially since one of the brothers asked me when the prayer was established why we did not pray in the mosque, I said: As for me, I did not notice the adhan. But the truth is that... regarding this issue, there is a dispensation I derived from one of the great Imams of the Sunnah, renowned for his knowledge and his comprehensive grasp of the maximum possible amount of the Prophetic Sunnah, namely Imam Ahmad (may Allah have mercy on him). He was in a session of knowledge with some of his great peers among the Imams of hadith, including 'Ali ibn al-Madini and Yahya ibn Ma'in, and others like them among the great memorizers of hadith. The time for the Zuhr prayer arrived, and Imam Ahmad mentioned the presence of the prayer at the time of its entry, differing from those who mentioned to me after the iqamah here. So Imam Ahmad's answer, and here is the benefit, was that he said: "We are now in a session of knowledge, and we are in worship, and that is enough!" And those Imams I named to you approved him on that. I was in Damascus, and I spent many years delivering the lesson after Maghrib until 'Isha. We hardly heard the adhan without rushing to the mosque, also from my side and by adhering to the general texts: , or . I remained in this state for years, questioning myself: Do you not think we are excused in the case of our gathering in a session of knowledge, and praise be to Allah, knowledge of the Book and the Sunnah? Do you not think this is an excuse for us, especially since there are Imams of mosques, some of whose creed is ruined and barren, and some of whom do not know how to pray as it came in the authentic Sunnah? So I questioned myself: Do you not think that with this and that, it would be an excuse for us to miss the prayer and we would establish it in the session of knowledge, with a gathering larger than what is usually in the mosque? I questioned myself and was not at ease to stand alone in adopting this position until I came upon this report I just told you about, that the Imam of the Sunnah, Imam Ahmad, considered his and his companions' preoccupation with knowledge an excuse for them not to go to the mosque, and that they pray where they are in the session of knowledge. So this is how we are now, and for more than ten years we have dealt with this Ahmadi report, and I do not say Hanbali, for fear that it would be understood as the Hanbali school, but rather this is a report narrated by Imam Ibn Abi Hatim al-Razi in the introduction of his valuable book known as *al-Jarh wa al-Ta'dil*. So if I heard the adhan, I would not hesitate to remain in what we were doing of knowledge and that we pray here in congregation. This is a mosque, even if it is not considered a mosque in the legal sense such that whoever enters it must pray the two rak'ahs of greeting. No, it is not a mosque in that general legal sense, but it is a place of prayer where prayer is performed on the occasion of such a scientific gathering. This is what I wanted to remind you of on the occasion of that question.

The questioner : A report from Ibn 'Abbas that I heard on a tape.

The Shaykh : And what is it?

The questioner : It is that a man said to him: "Prayer," and he said to him: "May your mother be without you, do you want me to teach you the Sunnah?" If you added this to the report?

The Shaykh : Yes, but the argument with this is not complete unless it is established that he was close to the mosque, and otherwise it is spinning the gourd.

The questioner : Yes, meaning it does not apply to a situation like this?

The Shaykh : No, and therefore I told you that you should establish that he was close to the mosque, and consequently that the one who said to him "Prayer" does not mean that he is praying now, because the time of prayer has entered, but rather it means that the prayer is in the mosque. This is not in the hadith. This is what suits us, we argue with it, and we are not among the people of desires who manipulate evidence for their benefit even if it does not indicate for them. Please.
Ali Hasan: Our Shaykh, I mentioned to you on the phone, but now it is appropriate in this context, the report narrated by Ibn 'Abd al-Barr in *Jami' Bayan al-'Ilm wa Fadhlihi* from Ibn Wahb, the student of Imam Malik. He said: "I was sitting with Malik, reviewing hadith, when the adhan for the Zuhr prayer was called, and I wanted to stand up for the prayer, so he said to me: 'Sit, for what you are standing up for is better than what you are standing up from.'"

The Shaykh : This is also good, but here something arises that we do not know from the school of Malik: does he see the obligation of congregation or not? Did you understand, Ali?
Ali Hasan: I understood, our Shaykh.

The Shaykh : In any case, this is useful in the topic.