As for the first two practices, there are additional ḥadiths concerning them that will be cited in their proper places, God willing.

Ibn al-Humām said:

“In al-Nihāyah, quoting al-Ḥulwānī, it is related in the chapter on fasting from our scholars that it is disliked for a person to reserve a particular place for himself in the mosque, because worship then becomes second nature to him only in that spot and feels burdensome elsewhere; when worship turns into mere habit, its end is abandonment. For the same reason he considered perpetual fasting reprehensible.” End of quote. If that is the ruling for someone who claims the spot with no ulterior motive, then what of the one who does so for some corrupt purpose!

When our jurists use the term “disliked” (makrūh) without qualification, they intend prohibition, and—God willing—that is the correct view in this matter.

Shaykh Jamāl al-Dīn al-Qāsimī (may Allah have mercy on him) writes in Iṣlāḥ al-Masājid:

“Some regular attendees of the congregational prayers grow fond of a particular spot or corner of the mosque—behind the imam, beside the pulpit, in front of it, at the right or left wall, or on a raised platform at the back—so that they find no pleasure in worship or remaining in the mosque except there. If they see someone has preceded them to it, they may compel him to move on the grounds that it is ‘reserved,’ or they leave in anger, muttering lā ḥawla wa-lā quwwata illā bi-llāh (‘there is no power nor might except with Allah’) or innā li-llāhi wa-innā ilayhi rājiʿūn (‘to Allah we belong and to Him we shall return’). At times they startle the occupant by declaring, ‘I have been praying here for such-and-such years!’ They may even enlist the help of like-minded, uninformed devotees to evict him—one of many manifestations of ignorance afflicting many mosques. It is clear that attachment to a particular spot in the mosque stems either from ignorance or from ostentation and the desire for reputation, so that it may be said, ‘He never prays except in such-and-such place,’ or ‘He is always in the first row,’ and the like.”