Imam Abū Ḥanīfah held that the preferred time extends until midnight; this is likewise one of the two positions in the Shāfiʿī school and the alternate narration in the Ḥanbalī madhhab.

Al-Mughnī states: “This is also the view of al-Thawrī, Ibn al-Mubārak, Abū Thawr, the jurists of the Ḥanafī school, and one of the two opinions related from al-Shāfiʿī, because of the report from Anas that ‘the Prophet ﷺ delayed the ʿIshāʾ prayer until midnight,’” narrated by al-Bukhārī (572).

Al-Insāf records: “Al-Muwaffaq affirmed this in al-ʿUmda, and it was chosen by al-Qāḍī, Ibn ʿAqīl, al-Majd, and Ibn ʿAbd al-Qawī.”

Al-Furūʿ remarks: “It is the more apparent view.”

Shaykh Ibn Saʿdī said: “This is the correct position.”

Shaykh al-Islām (Ibn Taymiyyah) commented: “If one were to say that sometimes the limit is midnight and at other times one-third of the night, that would be reasonable.”

Shaykh Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm Āl al-Shaykh stated: “The preferred time lasts until one-third of the night; another narration extends it to midnight, and both opinions are supported by authentic hadiths.”

The legally recognized night extends from sunset until the appearance of the second (true) dawn.

The vast majority of scholars—including the four Imams and their followers—maintain that after the preferred time for ʿIshāʾ ends, the time of necessity begins and continues until daybreak.

According to some of them, among them the Ḥanbalīs, it is impermissible to perform the prayer deliberately during this period, although a prayer offered then is still considered adāʾ (performed on time), not qadāʾ (a make-up). Their evidence is the hadith of Abū Qatādah in Muslim, which plainly shows that the time for every prayer lasts until the entry of the next prayer’s time—except for the dawn prayer, which is excluded by consensus.