“No one leaves the mosque after the call to prayer except a hypocrite—unless a man is driven out by a need and intends to return to the mosque.”

The man responded, “My companions are at al-Ḥarrah,” and then he went out. Saʿīd kept bringing him up anxiously until news reached him that the man had fallen from his mount and broken his thigh.

The chain of transmission is sound (ḥasan); all of its transmitters are found in Muslim, except that Muslim narrates a corroborating report for ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, as noted in Tahdhīb al-Tahdhīb. Al-Ḥākim asserted in al-Mustadrak that Muslim relied upon him and elsewhere claimed that he is among al-Bukhārī’s transmitters. This, however, is one of al-Ḥākim’s mistakes, and al-Dhahabī agreed with him on that point.

This ḥadīth was also recorded by ʿAbd al-Razzaq in his Muṣannaf through this very route, as stated in Naṣb al-Rāyah. Al-Mundhirī attributed it to Abū Dāwūd in his Marāsīl, and it is included in the abridged edition as well.

Al-Shawkānī said:

“These two ḥadīths indicate that it is forbidden to leave the mosque after hearing the adhān except to perform wuduʾ, relieve oneself, or attend to a necessity, until one has performed that prayer there—because that particular mosque has become specified for that prayer. Al-Tirmidhī, after citing the ḥadīth, said: ‘This is the practice of the scholars, from the Companions of the Prophet ﷺ and those who came after them: that no one leaves the mosque [after the adhān] except for an excuse—such as being without ablution or facing some unavoidable matter.’ It is related from Ibrāhīm al-Nakhaʿī that he said: ‘A person may leave as long as the muʾadhdhin has not begun the iqāmah,’ and, in our view, this applies only to someone who has a legitimate excuse for leaving.”