His statement, “There is no prayer after Asr until the sun sets,” (1) contains both generality and specificity.

It is general with respect to prayer in the words, “There is no prayer”: neither the mosque-greeting prayer nor any other. It is specific with respect to the time: “after Asr.” Thus, the wording, “When any one of you enters the mosque,” is general with respect to time, while the wording, “after Asr,” is specific with respect to time. Likewise, the wording, “There is no prayer after Asr,” is general with respect to prayer, whereas the mosque-greeting prayer is specific. Therefore, the relationship between them is one of generality and specificity. If a person enters the mosque after Asr, then, if you tell him, “Pray,” you have gone against the prohibition and complied with the command; but if you tell him, “Do not pray,” you have complied with the prohibition and gone against the command. The author therefore says: comply with the prohibition, so do not pray.

The evidence for this is that a permissive ruling and a prohibitive ruling have coincided, or a command and a prohibition have coincided. The prudent course is to refrain, for fear of falling into what is prohibited. As the scholars have said: when a permissive ruling and a prohibitive ruling coincide, the prohibitive ruling takes precedence. Therefore, we refrain and limit ourselves to what has been established by the textual evidence: repeating the congregational prayer, the two rak‘ahs of circumambulation, and the like.

Some scholars, however, held that the specific command should be given precedence.

They reasoned that two general texts and two specific texts are in conflict, while the general wording of the prohibition has undisputed exceptions.

Thus, the general prohibition, “There is no prayer after Asr until the sun sets,” has undisputed exceptions: making up the obligatory prayers, repeating the congregational prayer, performing the two rak‘ahs of circumambulation, and the two rak‘ahs of the mosque-greeting prayer for one who enters