one who sits.” This applies generally to both obligatory and voluntary prayers. A person may not perform an obligatory prayer sitting or lying down unless he has an excuse. Nor, according to the overwhelming majority of earlier and later scholars, may he offer voluntary prayers lying down, apart from one view within the schools of al-Shāfi‘ī and Ahmad. It is well known that offering voluntary prayers while lying down is an innovation that none of the early generations practised.

The Prophet’s saying—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—

“When a servant falls ill or travels, the deeds he used to perform while healthy and resident are recorded for him,”

indicates that this reward is recorded for him on account of his intention, even though he is not performing the deeds he habitually performed before his illness or journey. This means that someone who misses congregational prayer because of illness or travel, but habitually attended it, has the reward of congregational prayer recorded for him. If he did not habitually attend it, that reward is not recorded for him, although in either case the act itself earns him the reward of praying alone. The same applies to a sick person who prays sitting or lying down.

According to this view, if a man prays alone and can subsequently pray in congregation, he should do so. If he cannot pray in congregation, he should seek Allah’s forgiveness, like someone who misses the Friday prayer and prays Zuhr instead. If a man sets out intending to join the congregation but finds that they have already prayed, he receives the reward of someone who prayed in congregation, as established in the Sunnah of the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace.

If he catches one rak‘ah with the imam, he has caught the congregational prayer; if he catches less