Section
When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ awoke on the morning following the Night Journey, Gabriel came to him at the time of the sun’s zenith, showed him how to perform the prayer and clarified its appointed times. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ then instructed his Companions to gather, and Gabriel led him in prayer from that day until the next, the Muslims standing behind the Prophet ﷺ while he in turn followed Gabriel, as is related in the ḥadīth of Ibn ʿAbbās and Jābir:
“Gabriel led me in prayer at the Sacred House twice.”(1)
Thus he explained to him the first and last limits of each prayer, and whatever lies between those two points is the broad, permissible time; no such latitude, however, was mentioned for Maghrib. This is likewise established in the reports of Abū Mūsā, Buraydah, and ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr, all of which are recorded in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim.(2) A detailed discussion of the matter appears in our book al-Aḥkām—and to Allah belong all praise.
As for what al-Bukhārī transmits(3) from Maʿmar, from al-Zuhrī, from ʿUrwah, from ʿĀʾishah—she said: “When prayer was first prescribed it consisted of two rakʿahs; the travel prayer remained as it was, while the prayer in residence was increased.” The same wording is reported by al-Awzāʿī from al-Zuhrī,(4) and by al-Shaʿbī from Masrūq on her authority.(5)
This is problematic in light of the fact that ʿĀʾishah herself used to perform the full prayer while travelling, as did ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān. We have already addressed this under Allah’s words: “And when you travel in the land, there is no blame upon you for shortening the prayer if you fear that those who disbelieve may harm you” (al-Nisāʾ 4:101).
Al-Bayhaqī(6) said: al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī held that the prayer in residence was originally prescribed as four rakʿahs. He cited, in a mursal report, that on the morning after the Night Journey the Prophet ﷺ prayed Ẓuhr four rakʿahs, ʿAṣr four rakʿahs, Maghrib three rakʿahs—reciting aloud in the first two—ʿIshāʾ four rakʿahs—reciting aloud in the first two—and Fajr two rakʿahs, reciting aloud in both.
I say: It may be that ʿĀʾishah intended that the prayer