is firmly fixed in your heart; it is something that already exists. But if what you mean is the actual performance of the deed—that it will certainly happen—then do not say, “I will do it” unless you join it to “if Allah wills.”
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A person is excused from attending the congregational prayer when there is between him and the mosque something that would cause genuine hardship—mud, water, or the like. It was the Prophet’s practice, peace and blessings be upon him, that on a rainy night his caller would announce, “Pray in your dwellings,” meaning in your own places, so that the people would not be put to strain. If, however, the water involves no hardship—no flooding, no mud—then one is not excused from joining the congregation.
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Another benefit of the ḥadith of ʿItbān b. Mālik, may Allah be pleased with him, is that a prayer-space set aside inside one’s house does not assume the rulings of a mosque. Even if a person fences off a spot in his home and prays there exclusively, it does not thereby become a mosque.
Consequently, none of the mosque regulations apply to it: a person may remain there while in a state of major ritual impurity; sitting in it does not require the two-rakʿah “greeting of the mosque”; and any other mosque rulings are likewise inapplicable. Should someone wish to perform iʿtikāf (ritual seclusion) there, the iʿtikāf would be invalid. The same holds for a woman who has a private prayer room in her house—she may not observe iʿtikāf in it.
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The ḥadith also indicates that supererogatory prayers may be performed in congregation, though only occasionally rather than as a fixed practice. When the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, was shown by ʿItbān the place where he prayed, he stepped forward, led them in two rakʿahs, and they prayed behind him. Thus, if a person sometimes performs his regular sunnah prayers—such as the rawātib (regular sunnah) or the duḥā (forenoon) prayer—in congregation, there is no harm in that.