Mosques: When a person goes into a
mosque

Q395 :When a person goes into a mosque after hearing
the call to prayer, should he pray first the sunnah or the two raka’hs
renetmended as greeting to the mosque?


A395 : When you enter the mosque to offer an
obligatory prayer, whether shortly after the call is made or at any
time, and whether the congregation has finished, the sunnah known as
greeting to the mosque is renetmended. If, however, you are offering a
prayer which is normally preceded by two rak’ahs as sunnah, or
renetmended, then you offer these, netbining with them the greeting to
the mosque. In other words, you pray two rak’ahs only intending them to
be the regular sunnah of the obligatory prayer as well as the greeting
to the mosque. If you enter shortly after the call for prayer is made,
you also netbine with them the sunnah of athan, or prayer call. That
gives you the reward of six rak’ahs when you offer only two. If you
enter the mosque intending to stay for some time, [Added: that is if
you enter well before the next prayer timing] having offered the last
obligatory prayer, you are renetmended to offer two rak’ahs in greeting
to the mosque. You cannot netbine these with any sunnah, because there
is no sunnah to offer, since you have already finished your last
obligatory prayer. It was the habit of the Prophet (peace be on him)
when he entered the mosque not to sit down until he has offered two
rak’ahs.


Our Dialogue ( Source : Arab News – Jeddah )