a resident imam, he joins the obligatory congregation and must therefore follow the imam, just as in the Friday prayer. If it is objected:

“Travellers may form a congregation of their own,”

the reply is:

“They may likewise form a congregation on Friday and pray four rakʿahs.”

As for the Eid prayer, it is established that ʿAlī appointed someone to lead the people in the mosque in four rakʿahs: two in accordance with the Sunnah and two because they had not gone out to the open prayer ground. Thus, Dhuhr on Friday and the two Eid prayers are sometimes offered as two rakʿahs and sometimes as four, like the traveller’s prayer, unlike Fajr. The reports from the Companions support this: they disapproved of the imam praying four rakʿahs, yet prayed behind him, as in the report of Salmān and the report concerning Ibn Masʿūd and others with ʿUthmān. Had they regarded this as equivalent to praying four rakʿahs for Fajr, they would not have considered it permissible to pray four, just as no Muslim considers it permissible to pray four rakʿahs for Fajr.

If someone says:

“Once they had sat for the time required for the tashahhud, they had fulfilled the obligatory prayer, and the remainder was voluntary,”

the reply is:

It is well known that none of them is reported to have said, “We intended the two rakʿahs as a voluntary prayer.” Moreover, doing so is not prescribed: no one may pray two rakʿahs after Fajr. Indeed, the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, rebuked someone who offered the Sunnah prayer after the call to commence the obligatory prayer, saying:

“Is Fajr four rakʿahs?”

That man had prayed before the imam; how much more objectionable would it be to join one prayer directly to another?

It is also established in al-Sahīh:

“The Prophet