134 – Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) related that the Prophet ﷺ said: “Whoever catches one rakʿah (unit of prayer) of the dawn prayer before the sun rises has caught the dawn prayer, and whoever catches one rakʿah of the afternoon prayer before the sun sets has caught the afternoon prayer.” Agreed upon.⦗1⦘

Muslim transmits a similar report from ʿĀʾishah (may Allah be pleased with her) in which he mentions “one sajdah” instead of “one rakʿah,” and then explains: “A sajdah is, in reality, a rakʿah.”⦗2⦘

Vocabulary
• man (“whoever”): a conditional particle; its protasis is the first verb adraka (“catches”), and its apodosis is the second adraka, with the faʾ linking the two.
• sajdah: here it means a complete rakʿah with its bowing and prostrations.
• fa-qad adraka al-subḥ (“has caught the dawn prayer”): i.e., he has performed the dawn prayer within its prescribed time.

Points derived from the ḥadith
1 – The time for the dawn prayer lasts until sunrise.
2 – The time for the afternoon prayer lasts until sunset.
3 – If one performs a single rakʿah of the dawn prayer before sunrise, the entire prayer is deemed to have been performed within its time; it is adāʾ (on-time), not qaḍāʾ (made-up). Hence, catching one rakʿah of a prayer within its period applies to the whole prayer, so the entire