129 – Abū Barzah al-Aslamī (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ would perform the ʿAsr (afternoon) prayer, and one of us could then return to his raḥl in the farthest part of Madinah while the sun was still bright. He preferred to delay the ʿIshāʾ (night) prayer, and he disliked sleeping before it or conversing after it. He would finish the ṣalāt al-ghadāh (dawn prayer) when a man was able to recognize the person sitting next to him, and he would recite between sixty and one hundred verses.” Agreed upon (1).

In the version recorded by both al-Bukhārī and Muslim from Jābir: “As for the ʿIshāʾ prayer, at times he would offer it early and at other times he would delay it: if he saw the people had gathered early, he would pray early; if he found that they were slow to assemble, he would delay it. The Prophet ﷺ would offer the Fajr (dawn) prayer while it was still dark.” (2)

Muslim also relates from Abū Mūsā: “He established the Fajr prayer as soon as the true dawn broke, when the people could scarcely recognize one another.” (3)

Vocabulary of the hadith:
– raḥluhu: a person’s dwelling and the personal effects he carries with him when traveling.
– in aqṣā al-madīnah: a descriptive phrase modifying raḥl, not an adverb of the verb; it means “the most distant house in the city.”