“Al-Tabarani recorded it in both al-Kabir and al-Awsat, and all of its transmitters are trustworthy.”

It is therefore quite possible that the congregation Anas—may Allah be pleased with him—established took place in a mosque that had neither a resident imam nor a regular muʾadhdhin. Repeating the prayer in such a mosque is not disliked, as will soon be clarified, and in this way the two reports are in harmony, not at variance.

The best discussion I have seen from the leading imams on this question is that of Imam al-Shafiʿi—may Allah have mercy on him. Given its importance, and the fact that most people are unaware of it, I shall cite it here in abridged form, even though that will lengthen the commentary. He says in al-Umm 1/136:

“If a man possesses a mosque in which the congregational prayer is usually held but he misses the prayer, then if he goes to another mosque where a congregation is being offered, that is more beloved to me; yet if he does not go and instead prays alone in his own mosque, that is acceptable. When a mosque has a resident imam and one or several men miss the prescribed prayer there, they should pray separately, and I do not like them to form another congregation in that mosque. Should they do so, their congregation is still valid, but I dislike it for them because it is not something the early generations before us practiced; indeed, some of them criticized it. I think their disapproval was due to the division it causes: a man might refuse to pray behind the appointed imam, so he—and whoever wishes—stay away from the mosque at the time of prayer. When the prayer is over, they enter and hold a new congregation, producing discord and fragmentation, both of which are blameworthy. I object to this only in every mosque that has both an imam and a muʾadhdhin. As for a mosque built along a roadside or in some out-of-the-way spot, where no regular muʾadhdhin calls the adhan and no resident imam leads the prayer, and in which passers-by simply pray and take shelter, I do not disapprove of a second congregation there, because the cause of my earlier censure—division and aversion to the designated imam—is absent.”

He then said, “What has prevented me from declaring that a man’s solitary prayer is invalid when he is able to join a congregation …”