and that prayer counts for him only as a voluntary act. This is exactly what is stated in another ḥadith in which the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said to the two men whom he ordered to repeat the prayer, “For the two of you it will merely be a supererogatory prayer.” In addition, if he were to remain seated while the people are praying, onlookers might suspect that he is neglecting the prayer altogether.

Another rule concerning congregational prayer is that once the iqāma has begun—that is, when the call to stand for the obligatory prayer is in progress—it is impermissible to commence any supererogatory prayer, whether it be the regular sunna, the greeting of the mosque, or any other nafl prayer. The Prophet ﷺ said, “When the prayer has been established, there is no prayer except the prescribed one,” reported by Muslim; in another wording, “There is no prayer except the one that is being established.” Accordingly, any voluntary prayer a person begins after the iqāma for the obligatory prayer he intends to perform with that imam does not legally take effect.

Imām al-Nawawī (d. 676 AH) explained: “The wisdom behind this is that one should be wholly free for the obligatory prayer from its very first moment, joining it as soon as the imam begins. Safeguarding the perfections of the obligatory prayer takes precedence over occupying oneself with voluntary prayers, and the Prophet ﷺ also forbade acting at variance with the imams.”