I once came to Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī (1) while a large crowd had gathered around him. When the people dispersed, I said, “I am not going to ask you about what these others have asked; I wish to ask you about the prayer of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace.”

He replied, “There is no benefit for you in that.” I repeated my request, whereupon he said:

“When the iqāmah for the ẓuhr prayer was given, one of us could walk to al-Baqīʿ to tend to his needs, then go home, perform ablution, and return to the mosque while the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, was still in the first rakʿah.”

In another wording: “because he lengthened it so much.” (3) Muslim narrates it in his Ṣaḥīḥ (4).

This shows you that Abū Saʿīd regarded the people’s prayer as shorter than that.

In the two Ṣaḥīḥs it is related from Abū Barzah (5) that he said: “The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, would lead the dawn prayer, and a man could leave and still recognize the person who had been sitting next to him. He would recite in the two rakʿahs—or in one of them—between sixty and a hundred verses.” This is al-Bukhārī’s wording (6).

ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar, may Allah be pleased with them both, said: “The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, used to command us to keep the prayer light, yet he would sometimes lead us with Sūrah al-Ṣāffāt.” This was reported by Aḥmad.