its interval. Mālik holds that if a woman becomes pure when only the span of four rakʿahs remains before sunset, she is answerable for the ʿAṣr Prayer alone; but if five rakʿahs remain, both Ẓuhr and ʿAṣr are required of her.

According to al-Shāfiʿī, whenever even one rakʿah can still be performed before the sun sets, the two prayers are jointly due—as we have explained—or, on his second opinion, the mere opening takbīr suffices to make them obligatory. Mālik applies the same ruling to a traveller who, having forgotten a prayer, becomes resident within these intervals, or to a resident who sets out on a journey during them; the same is true for a non-Muslim who embraces Islam then, and for a minor who reaches puberty: in every such case the prayer becomes incumbent.

The reason Mālik counts a full rakʿah as the portion that extends to the end of the time, whereas al-Shāfiʿī settles for part of a rakʿah—indeed for the takbīr alone—is the Prophet’s (peace and blessings be upon him) statement:

“Whoever catches one rakʿah of ʿAṣr before the sun sets has caught the ʿAṣr Prayer.”

Mālik regards this as an instance of drawing attention to the greater by mentioning the lesser, while al-Shāfiʿī considers it the reverse—drawing attention to the lesser by citing the greater. Al-Shāfiʿī reinforces his view with the report:

“Whoever catches one prostration of ʿAṣr before the sun sets has caught the ʿAṣr Prayer,”

understanding “one prostration” here as a part of the rakʿah, and on that basis saying: “Whoever among them manages even a single takbīr before sunset or sunrise has caught the time.”

Mālik further holds that the menstruating woman may count this final portion of the time only after she has completed her purification, and the same applies to the child upon reaching maturity. For the convert to Islam, however, the reckoning begins from the very moment of his Islam, not from the completion of his ritual bath, though there is a divergence of opinion on the point.

The unconscious person, in Mālik’s view, is treated like the menstruating woman; ʿAbd al-Malik, however, likens him to the convert. Mālik also maintains that if a woman’s menses begin during one of these intervals before she has prayed, no make-up prayer is required of her, whereas al-Shāfiʿī obliges her to make it up. This necessarily follows for anyone who considers the prayer obligatory from the very start of its appointed time: if the woman menstruates after enough of the period has elapsed to perform the prayer, the duty has already fallen upon her—unless one says that the obligation arises only at the end of the time, which is Abū Ḥanīfah’s position, not Mālik’s. As you can see, the consequence here accords with Abū Ḥanīfah’s principles, not with those of Mālik.

Section Two of the First Chapter: On the Times in Which Prayer Is Forbidden

In this matter the scholars disagreed on two points: first, regarding how many such times there are; and second, as to which prayers the prohibition concerns.

Issue One: The scholars concur that three periods are forbidden for prayer: at sunrise, at sunset, and from the completion of the dawn prayer until the sun has fully risen.