Continuation of the explanation of the hadith: (If one of you is invited, let him respond; if he is fasting, let him pray, and if he is not fasting, let him eat).

The Shaykh :"And from him (may Allah be pleased with him)": "From him" means from Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him).
"He said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said:

When one of you receives an invitation (for a meal), he should accept it.

إذا دعي أحدكم فليجب

Sunan Abi Dawud 2460Sahih (Al-Albani)

": The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) did not specify what he was invited to, and thus it is general, meaning: not restricted to the invitation to a wedding feast.
And his saying: means: let him respond to the inviter. The lam here is for command, and it was sukun (unvoweled) because the rule is: "that the lam of command, when it comes after the fa, waw, and thum, is sukun, and in everything else it is kasrah (voweled with i). As for the lam of causation, it is always kasrah, even if it comes after the waw, thum, and fa": Allah the Exalted said: , and it is not permissible to say: wa-li-yatamadda, because the lam in His saying: is for causation; if it were for command, it would have been sukun. Allah the Exalted said: .
And He said: Here he said fa-li-yajib according to the rule.
: If he is fasting, meaning the invitee, let him pray, meaning: let him supplicate. The meaning is not let him pray: the customary prayer.
So if someone says: How do we interpret it as supplication, while the absolute prayer in the language of the Lawgiver is interpreted as the ritual prayer?
We say: For a linguistic and contextual indication:
As for the linguistic one, it is because Abu Dawud narrated the hadith with the wording: , with this wording, and this is an explanation of his saying: , and after this Prophetic explanation, it cannot be that the intended meaning is the ritual prayer. Do you understand?
Now, if someone says: Is there a parallel for this, where prayer comes in the sacred texts with the meaning of supplication?
We say: Yes, such as His saying: : The intended meaning is not that you pray over them the funeral prayer, but rather that you supplicate for them. And the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) did that, so when the people brought him their charities, he would say: .
Now, then it is established that the intended meaning is let him supplicate. The linguistic indication is the explanation of this wording in Abu Dawud.
The contextual indication is that there is no connection between the ritual prayer and the fact that this invitee is fasting. Then someone might say: How is one commanded to pray in this state in the presence of food, while the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: ?!
So it is established that the intended meaning of prayer is supplication.
: If he is not fasting, let him eat, let him eat.
Yes, and his saying: includes eating and drinking. We said: let him eat, and the correct is let him eat and drink, because drinking is called food. Allah the Exalted said: .
And his saying: its apparent meaning is obligation, but he has from the hadith of Jabir a similar report, saying: .
But who is it that if he wishes, he may eat, and if he wishes, he may refrain?
The fasting person. And although the apparent meaning of the author's words is that he intends the non-fasting person, in order to shift the command in his saying: to recommendation rather than obligation.