al-Mu‘attal. Such conduct was prohibited only because it leads to wrongdoing; if it brings about an overriding benefit, it does not lead to wrongdoing.

This applies to unrestricted voluntary prayer: it may lead to wrongdoing, and people have no need to perform it during the prohibited times, since there is ample time when prayer is permissible. Indeed, prohibiting it at certain times brings other benefits, including allowing people some respite from the exertion of worship, just as sleep and other forms of rest refresh them.

For this reason, Mu‘ādh said:

“I seek reward for my sleep just as I seek reward for my standing in prayer.”

Another benefit is that withholding prayer for a time awakens people’s longing for it and makes it dearer to them, so that they approach it with greater energy and eagerness. When an act of worship is assigned particular times, people feel more enthusiasm for it than they do for something performed constantly.

Another benefit is that people grow weary, bored, and restless with something done constantly. Prohibiting it at certain times removes that weariness. There are other kinds of benefits in prohibiting unrestricted voluntary prayer as well. Thus, this prohibition wards off harms and secures benefits without causing any benefit to be lost.

As for prayers performed for a specific reason, prohibiting some of them would cause their benefit to be lost, depriving people of opportunities for worship, obedience, earning reward and recompense, and attaining great benefit in their religion—opportunities that cannot be recovered. Examples include repeating a prayer with the neighborhood imam, the prayer upon entering a mosque, the prostration of recitation, the eclipse prayer, and similar acts.