The Section on Prayer · 57 – The Situation of Someone Who Joins the Congregation After Praying
It is narrated from Jabir ibn Yazid ibn al-Aswad that he prayed with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ while still a young man. When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ finished praying, he saw two men who had not joined the congregation and called them forth. They were brought (and they trembled) from the awe of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said to them, “What prevented you from praying with us?” They replied, "We prayed at home." The Messenger of Allah ﷺ then said to them, “Do not do that again. If one of you prays at home and arrives before the imam performs the prayer, he should pray with the imam; what he prays with the imam will be supererogatory for him.”
Jabir ibn Yazid ibn al-Aswad has narrated to me from his father who said:
I performed the Fajr prayer with the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, at Mina, and then he related the hadith with the same meaning as mentioned previously.
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Note: *Rahil* means a stage (of travel). Yazid ibn Amr al-Suwai. He participated in the battle of Hunayn. Some people say that Yazid ibn Aswad and Yazid ibn Amir are the same person. (From Abu Dawud’s marginal notes)
It is related from Yazid ibn Amir that he said:
I approached the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) while he was performing prayer, without joining them in the prayer.
He (peace and blessings be upon him) turned to us after the prayer and saw that Yazid had not participated. He then said, “O Yazid, have you not become Muslim? Or what?” Yazid replied, "Yes, O Messenger of Allah, I have become Muslim."
The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “Then what prevented you from joining the congregational prayer?” Yazid said, “I thought you had already performed it at home.” Thereupon the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said:
“When you come to a mandatory prayer and find the congregation praying, pray with them. If you have already prayed that same prayer at home, what you pray with the congregation is supererogatory, and the prayer you performed at home serves as fulfillment of the obligatory.”
EXPLANATION
If someone prays their prayer at home and then sees that the same prayer has been performed in congregation, they should join the congregation as a supererogatory act. The first prayer they prayed becomes a supererogatory prayer, and the prayer they prayed at home fulfills the obligation.
According to Imam al-A’zam, someone who prays the Fajr, Asr, and Maghrib prayers at home cannot follow the imam in congregation even if they encounter it.
According to Shafi'i and Ahmad ibn Hanbal, one may join as a supererogatory act for any prayer. According to Malik, joining as a supererogatory act is disliked for the Maghrib prayer; one may join for other prayers. (Maalim-us-Sunnah, vol. 1, p. 299)
A man from the sons of Asad asked Abu Ayyub al-Ansari, referring to himself, “One of us performs prayer in his home and comes to the mosque where prayer is being performed. I join them in that prayer, but my heart finds no ease (what is the ruling concerning this?)”
Abu Ayyub said: "We asked the Messenger of Allah about the same thing, and the Messenger of Allah said: 'It is a share of the reward of the congregation for him.'"