61 – Anas ibn Mālik (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: “In the lifetime of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ his Companions would wait for the ‘Ishāʾ prayer until their heads began to nod in drowsiness; then they would rise and pray without renewing their ablution.” Recorded by Abū Dāwūd, declared authentic by al-Dāraquṭnī, and its original wording is found in Muslim (1).
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Authenticity rating: The ḥadith is ṣaḥīḥ. Its source version appears in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim: “They used to wait for the ‘Ishāʾ prayer, then they would fall asleep and afterwards pray without performing a new ablution.” It was graded sound by al-Tirmidhī and al-Dāraquṭnī. Al-Bayhaqī said, “Its transmitters are the transmitters of the authentic collections,” and Ibn Ḥajar stated, “Its chain is sound.”

Vocabulary of the ḥadith:
• ‘ahd: a period of time; one says “that occurred ‘alā ‘ahd so-and-so,” meaning “in his day.” Plural: ‘uhūd / ‘ihād.
• yantaẓirūn: they wait in expectation of the prayer’s arrival so as to perform it.
• al-‘ishāʾ: with a kasrah on the ‘ayn and a long vowel. Its time begins after the disappearance of the red twilight. The prayer is named after this time because it is performed then; it is also called al-‘ishāʾ al-ākhirah (“the later ‘Ishāʾ”).
• ḥattā: a particle that serves several functions, among them to mark a limit or endpoint, which is what is meant here.
• takhfiq (from khafaqa): with a kasrah on the fāʾ, from the pattern faʿala, meaning for the head to tilt due to drowsiness. Al-Miṣbāḥ states: “khafaqa bi-raʾsihi—when sleep overtakes him lightly and his head droops while the rest of his body remains upright.”