Others, however, allow it while holding it to be disliked; this is the position of Mālik and Aḥmad. It may therefore be said: had Allah loved that a traveler pray two rak‘ahs and then another two, it would have been preferable for him to perform the obligatory prayer as four, for drawing near to Him by completing part of the noon prayer is superior to drawing near by adding a voluntary act to it. For this very reason He obliged the resident to pray four; if a resident wished to make two rak‘ahs obligatory and the other two supererogatory, that would not be permitted. Allah Most High never makes something obligatory and prohibits its opposite except that what He commands is better than what He forbids. Hence, offering the noon prayer as four rak‘ahs is dearer to Allah than praying it as two obligatory rak‘ahs followed by two voluntary ones. Therefore, since He did not deem it desirable for the traveler to complete four rak‘ahs by the better of the two options, it is even more fitting that He would not favor completing four by the inferior option.