138 – Ibn ʿAbbās (may Allah be pleased with them) reported that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Dawn is of two kinds: one dawn makes eating unlawful and at that moment the prayer becomes permissible, while the other makes the Morning Prayer impermissible yet eating remains lawful.” It was related by Ibn Khuzaymah and al-Ḥākim, and both declared it authentic. (1)

Al-Ḥākim also transmitted a similar report from Jābir, adding about the dawn that forbids food: “It spreads lengthwise across the horizon,” and about the other: “It is like the tail of a wolf.” (2)

Hadith grading:
The chain of transmission is sound, but the preferable judgement is that it stops with the Companion.

Al-Dāraqutnī said: No one traced it back to the Prophet except Abū Aḥmad al-Zubayrī, from al-Thawrī, from Ibn Jurayj. Al-Firyābī and others reported it from al-Thawrī as a Companion statement, and Ibn Jurayj’s own students did likewise. Even so, it has a supporting narration from Jābir in al-Ḥākim where he said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “Dawn is twofold: the one that looks like the tail of a wolf neither permits the prayer nor forbids food, whereas the one that extends lengthwise across the horizon permits the prayer and forbids food.”

Al-Bayhaqī remarked: It has come down both with a connected chain and as a mursal report, and the mursal version is stronger. Al-Ḥākim recorded it and judged it authentic.

Further corroboration in this regard appears in a narration from Samurah, reported by Muslim, and another from Ibn Masʿūd that is agreed upon.