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Text and translation
English translation
583. Jābir bin ‘Abdullāh narrated: “Mu’ādh bin Jabal would pray Al-Maghrib with the Messenger of
Allāh ﷻ, then he would return to his people to lead them (in prayer).” (Ṣaḥīḥ)
Abū ‘Eisā said: This Ḥadīth is Ḥasan Ṣaḥīḥ.
This is acted upon according to our companions, Ash-Shāfi‘ī, Aḥmad, and Ishāq. They say when a man leads the people in an obligatory prayer while he has prayed it before that, then the prayer of those who prayed behind him is acceptable. They argue using the Ḥadīth of Jābir regarding the story of Mu‘ādh, and it is a Ṣaḥīḥ Ḥadīth, it has been reported through more than one route from Jābir.
It has been reported that Abū Ad-Dardā’ was asked about a man who entered the Masjid while the people were praying the ‘Aṣr prayer, and he thought it was the Zuḥr prayer, and joined them. He said that his prayer was acceptable.
There are those among the people of Al-Kūfah who said that when a people are lead by an Imām who is praying ‘Aṣr while they think that it is Zuḥr if he leads them and they follow him, then the prayer of the followers is invalid since the intention of the Imām differed with the intention of those being lead.
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Footnotes
1
[1] These are some of the narrators in the chain, and it is a clarification of the correct wording in Arabic, see Al-Bukhārī no. 691.
Commentary
The scholars and the jurists hold different opinions concerning the diverse intentions of the Imām and the followers. Shafi‘ī said the diversity in intention will not affect the prayer unless the actions are diverse. Therefore a person offering obligatory prayer behind the one doing voluntary, the one offering
voluntary prayer behind the one who is offering obligatory, the Imām and the follower doing two different obligatory prayers, their prayers are all valid. Tawūs, ‘Aṭā, Awzā’ī, Aḥmad, Abū Thawr, Sulaimān bin Ḥarb, Dāwūd and Ibn Al-Mundhir hold the same opinion. Ibn Qudāmah said: Offering voluntary prayer behind a person offering obligatory prayer is unanimously agreed according to the Ḥanbalah. He even said: ‘As for our knowledge there is no disagreement among the people of knowledge concerning this issue’. [41-Mughnī: 3/68]. The truth is that offering obligatory prayer behind the one offering voluntary is valid. Because it exists clearly in Muslim, Hadīth: 465 that Mu’ād would ‘lead the same prayer for his people’ which he Ṣāḥih had already performed with the Prophet ﷺ.
