“Permission to sit in the mosque and to leave it without praying.”
Yet, like the previous report, this ḥadīth is not explicit that he actually sat without praying, nor that the incident occurred after the Prophet (ﷺ) had instructed him to offer the greeting-prayer. The wording easily allows the opposite reading, and nothing within it rules that out. Because such uncertainty exists, the evidence collapses—Allah knows best.
For that reason al-Shawkānī, after dismantling every proof adduced for non-obligation, concluded:
“Once you understand this, it becomes apparent that the manifest ruling is what the Ẓāhirīs said: it is obligatory.”
Al-Amīr al-Ṣanʿānī had already opted for the view of obligation in Subul al-Salām, stating: “Because of the many commands that have come regarding it.”
I say: This is further supported by what follows—namely the Prophet’s (ﷺ) command, while he was on the pulpit delivering the Friday sermon, that Sulayk al-Ghaṭafānī perform this prayer, and his subsequent order that every person who enters the mosque do likewise even if the imam is preaching. This is among the strongest proofs of its obligatoriness for three reasons:
- He (ﷺ) interrupted the sermon to issue the command;
- He commanded it after Sulayk had already sat down;
- —and this is the most compelling—he ordered it during the sermon itself, even though it is well known that in that state no one is permitted to enjoin good or forbid wrong, in view of his statement (ﷺ):