over it, on account of the general evidence establishing the obligation to pray over the deceased, and because his burial should be hastened.

Any voluntary prayer other than these is prohibited during any of the five times, even a prayer that has a particular cause.

His statement, “Any voluntary prayer other than these is prohibited,” means other than the cases mentioned above: repeating the congregational prayer, the two rak‘ahs of circumambulation, the mosque-greeting prayer for one who enters while the imam is delivering the sermon, the regular post-Zuhr sunnah prayer for one who combines it with Asr, and the sunnah prayer of Fajr before it.

His statement, “even a prayer that has a particular cause,” means that voluntary prayer is not permitted at these times, even if it has a particular cause.

This is due to the generality of the evidence that there is to be no prayer at these times. Thus, the general prohibition takes precedence over the general command, because prayers that have a particular cause appear to conflict with the hadiths of prohibition: each is general in one respect and specific in another. An example is the mosque-greeting prayer. The Prophet ﷺ said: “When any one of you enters the mosque, let him not sit down until he has prayed two rak‘ahs.” (1)

This is general with respect to time, as understood from his words, “When he enters,” because “when” is a conditional temporal expression; that is, at whatever time he enters the mosque, he should not sit down until he has prayed two rak‘ahs. Yet it is specific with respect to the prayer: the prayer commanded in this general wording is a particular prayer, namely, the mosque-greeting prayer. Thus, it contains both generality and specificity.