the prayers are contiguous. If that is so, then the end of the time for the later night prayer is the time when dawn rises. (1)

However, this does not constitute evidence, because his statement, “Negligence is only on the part of one who delays a prayer until the time for the next prayer begins,” applies where the times of the two prayers are contiguous. This is why it does not include the dawn prayer in relation to the noon prayer, by consensus. (2) Indeed, by consensus, the time of the dawn prayer does not extend until the noon prayer. Since this hadith provides no evidence, one must refer back to the other proofs. Yet the other proofs contain nothing to indicate that the time for the night prayer extends until dawn. Rather, the hadith of Abdullah ibn Amr ibn al-As (3) and the hadith of Gabriel (4) indicate that the time for the night prayer ends at midnight.

What the sunnah indicates is also indicated by the apparent meaning of the Quran, for Allah, Exalted is He, says in the Quran:

“Establish prayer from the decline of the sun until the darkness of night, and the Quran of dawn. Indeed, the Quran of dawn…” [al-Isra 17:78]

That is, from the decline of the sun. However, He used the preposition li- (for) to indicate that the commencement of the time is the operative cause of obligation—that is, its reason. Hence the jurists say: Time is a cause for the obligation of prayer and a condition for its validity. (5) The evidence that li- means “from” is the expression of the endpoint, “until”; every endpoint has a starting point, as though He had said, “From the decline of the sun until the darkness of night.” But He used li- to indicate that