committed a prohibited act that invalidates the prayer and forsaken the obligatory following of the imam for the sake of a merely recommended act. Yet they could just as easily have prayed individually and performed a complete prayer; therefore, the congregational prayer is obligatory.

Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah assembled this proof—together with other Qurʾānic and prophetic evidences—in al-Fatāwā 2/363–369. Whoever seeks further elucidation should consult that passage and al-Masāʾil al-Mārdīniyyah, pp. 90–92.

Note that affirming the obligation is not contradicted by certain hadiths that demonstrate the validity of praying alone, such as the first and second reports in this book, which grant the solitary worshipper a single degree of reward. This does not negate the obligation, for an obligatory act is, by its very nature, rewarded many times more than a merely recommended one, as is self-evident.

Sayed Sābiq then commented on his earlier statement: “This concerns the obligatory prayer; as for optional prayers in congregation, they are permissible whether the group is small or large….”

I say: The Prophet’s voluntary prayers were usually performed individually. Accordingly, the aforementioned permissibility must be restricted to certain occasions; otherwise, making congregational optional prayers a habit is an innovation that opposes his prevalent practice, as Shaykh al-Islam has shown in al-Fatāwā 2/2–3.

Under the heading “A Congregation Is Formed by One Person with the Imam,” after citing the narration, “Who will give charity to this man and pray with him?”, he writes: “Al-Tirmidhī used this hadith as evidence that people may pray in congregation in a mosque where the prayer has already been held.”

I reply: The hadith is more specific than that conclusion. I have already clarified this in the commentary on “The Adhān,” p. 157, where I also quoted al-Shāfiʿī’s statement regarding the dislike of holding a second congregation—refer to it there.