and His statement, Exalted is He: “Establish prayer from the decline of the sun until the darkness of night, and the dawn recitation. Indeed, the dawn recitation is ever witnessed.” [al-Isra]

The evidence from the sunnah is abundant. Among it is the Prophet’s saying: “The time for Zuhr begins when the sun passes its zenith, and continues while a man’s shadow is equal to his height, so long as the time for Asr has not arrived. The time for Asr lasts until the sun turns yellow.” (1) The hadith.

Prayer is not valid before its prescribed time, by the consensus of the Muslims. If someone prays before its time deliberately, his prayer is invalid, and he is not free of sin. If he does so unintentionally, thinking that the time has entered, then he is not sinful, and his prayer is voluntary; however, he must repeat it, because one of the conditions of prayer is that its prescribed time has entered.

The author’s statement, “Among them is the time,” is somewhat imprecise, for the time itself is not the condition; rather, the condition is the beginning of the prescribed time. Were we to say that the condition is the time itself, it would follow that the prayer is invalid both before it and after it. Yet it is known that prayer is valid after its time has passed when there is an excuse, due to the Prophet’s saying: “Whoever sleeps through a prayer or forgets it, let him pray it when he remembers it.” (3) It is also established that he prayed Fajr after sunrise (172). Thus, the more precise wording is to say, “Among them is the beginning of the prescribed time.”

It has already been mentioned that prayer before its prescribed time is invalid by consensus.

Is it valid after its prescribed time has passed? We say: if a person has a valid excuse, then it is valid, according to the textual evidence and consensus.