If someone were to say, “Should I repeat it in order to receive the reward twice over?”

We would reply: If you know the sunnah, then you will not receive the reward twice over; rather, you would be committing an innovation. The one who repeated the prayer, to whom the Prophet ﷺ said, “You will have the reward twice over,” did not know the sunnah. He exercised his independent judgment, and thus received the reward for both actions: the first and the second.

This hadith demonstrates a very important benefit: conforming to the sunnah is better than performing a great quantity of deeds.

For example, offering many voluntary prayers after the dawn call to prayer and before the iqamah is not prescribed, because the Prophet ﷺ did not do so.

Likewise, if someone wished to prolong the two rak'ahs of the sunnah prayer before dawn through lengthy recitation, bowing, and prostration—on the grounds that it is a virtuous time, between the call to prayer and the iqamah, during which supplication is answered—we would say: You have gone against what is correct, for the Prophet ﷺ would make these two rak'ahs brief (1).

Similarly, if someone wished to offer four voluntary rak'ahs behind the Station of Abraham after circumambulation, or wished to prolong the two rak'ahs behind the Station of Abraham after circumambulation, we would say: This is mistaken, for the Prophet ﷺ would make them brief and would not pray more than two rak'ahs (2).