As for his statement:

“When one of you enters the mosque, he should not sit down until he has prayed two rakʿahs,”

this is a general command from which no case has been excepted. It may therefore not be restricted by a general statement that is itself subject to exceptions. Rather, a general statement whose scope remains intact takes precedence over one subject to exceptions.

Moreover, praying while the imam is on the pulpit is more strictly forbidden than praying after Fajr and ʿAsr. Yet it is established in an authentic report that he said:

“When one of you enters the mosque while the imam is delivering the sermon, he should not sit down until he has prayed two rakʿahs.”

Since he commanded these two rakʿahs during the period covered by this prohibition, the same applies, with even greater reason, during the period covered by the other prohibition. Furthermore, some of the hadiths prohibiting prayer state, “Do not deliberately choose those times for your prayers.” Thus, he forbade deliberately selecting that time for prayer. Some scholars have also held that the prohibition in these hadiths indicates discouragement rather than outright forbiddance.

Some of the early generations permitted voluntary prayer after ʿAsr without restriction, citing the hadith of Aisha as evidence. For prayer was prohibited only to block a means leading to imitation of the disbelievers, and an act prohibited as a preventive measure may be performed when a greater benefit warrants it. This applies to a prayer tied to a specific occasion, whose opportunity passes when that occasion has passed: unless it is performed at that time, its benefit is lost.

Unrestricted voluntary prayer, however, need not be performed during the prohibited period, since a person does not spend the entire night and day praying. Prohibiting it therefore entails no loss of benefit, whereas performing it at that time entails harm. This differs from voluntary prayer tied to an occasion that can pass, such as prostration upon recitation and the eclipse prayer.

Moreover, if the two rakʿahs following circumambulation are permissible despite the possibility of postponing