142 – Umm Salama said: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ performed the ʿAṣr prayer, then entered my house and prayed two rakʿahs. I asked him about it and he replied, ‘I was pre-occupied and missed the two rakʿahs that follow Ẓuhr, so I have just made them up now.’ I said, ‘Shall we make them up if we miss them?’ He said, ‘No.’” Recorded by Aḥmad (1).
Abū Dāwūd narrates the same meaning from ʿĀʾishah (2).

Status of the ḥadith
The ḥadith is authentic.
The version of Umm Salama was transmitted by Aḥmad, al-Nasāʾī (579), and al-Sirāj through the chain of Abū Salama ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, from Umm Salama, who said: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ came in to me and prayed two rakʿahs after ʿAṣr. I asked, ‘What prayer is this? You were not in the habit of praying it.’ He replied, ‘A delegation from Banū Tamīm arrived and kept me from the two rakʿahs I normally offer after Ẓuhr.’”
Its chain is sound, and the core of the report is found in both Ṣaḥīḥs, except for her words, “Shall we make them up…?”; this addition was judged weak by al-Bayhaqī and by Ibn Ḥajar in Fatḥ al-Bārī, authenticated by Ibn Ḥibbān, and Ibn Rajab said in his commentary on al-Bukhārī that its chain is good – an assessment shared by Ibn Bāz.

Glossary
• shughiltu (I was kept busy): passive form from the root shughul (pre-occupation). The ghayn may be read with ḍammah or with sukūn. The expression shughiltu ʿan… means “I was diverted from…,” Ibn