He—may Allah have mercy on him—was asked:

A man missed the Asr prayer, then came to the mosque and found that the congregational Maghrib prayer was about to begin. Should he pray the missed prayer before Maghrib or not?

He replied:

All praise is due to Allah, Lord of all worlds. Rather, he should pray Maghrib with the imam and then pray Asr, by agreement of the imams. But must he repeat Maghrib? There are two opinions.

The first is that he must repeat it. This is the opinion of Ibn ‘Umar, Mālik and Abū Hanīfah, and the well-known position reported from Ahmad.

The second is that he need not repeat Maghrib. This is the opinion of Ibn ‘Abbās and al-Shāfi‘ī, and the other position in Ahmad’s school. The second opinion is more correct, for Allah has not required a person to perform the same prayer twice if he has been mindful of Allah to the best of his ability. And Allah knows best.

He—may Allah have mercy on him—was asked about a man who entered the congregational mosque while the preacher was delivering the sermon, but could not hear the words of