for greeting the mosque by someone who enters during the sermon, with no contrary view reported from him on this point, since an explicit text establishes it. The prohibition against prayer during the sermon is undoubtedly stricter; if this prayer may be offered then, it may all the more readily be offered at the times under discussion.

Another proof is the wording of Ibn ‘Umar’s hadith in the two Sahīh collections:

“Do not deliberately time your prayers to coincide with sunrise or sunset.”

Deliberately choosing a time means doing so intentionally and purposefully, and this applies only to unrestricted voluntary prayer. As for prayer with a specific cause, the worshipper has not deliberately chosen that time; rather, he offers it because of its cause, which has prompted him to perform it. This qualified, explanatory wording clarifies the other wordings and shows that the prohibition concerns only deliberately choosing those times. If it encompassed both kinds of prayer, singling out deliberate timing would serve no purpose, and the ruling would have been made contingent upon wording that has no bearing on it.

Another proof is that the permissibility of certain prayers with specific causes has already been established. Some are established by explicit texts, such as the second rak‘ah of Fajr, the two rak‘ahs following circumambulation, and repeating a prayer with the local imam. Others are established by both explicit texts and scholarly consensus, such as ‘Asr at sunset and the funeral prayer after ‘Asr. Upon examining the grounds for their permissibility, no sound underlying reason can be found other than their having a specific cause. The ruling must therefore be tied to that. Otherwise, what difference is there between repeating a prayer and the prayer for greeting the mosque, when the command to offer the latter is more authentically established? Likewise, he commanded the eclipse prayer in many authentic hadiths.