the sun had set, after which he offered the Maghrib prayer. This report is likewise transmitted by al-Bukhārī, Muslim, al-Tirmidhī, and al-Nasāʾī through several chains that go back to Yaḥyā ibn Abī Kathīr, from Abū Salamah. (1)

Imām Aḥmad (2) relates: ʿAbd al-Ṣamad narrated to us; Thābit narrated to us; Hilāl narrated to us, from ʿIkrimah, from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: “The Prophet ﷺ fought an enemy and did not break away from them until the ʿAṣr prayer had passed out of its time. When he realized this he said:

“O Allah, whoever has kept us from the Middle Prayer, fill their houses with fire and fill their graves with fire.”

—and similar wording. This narration is unique to Aḥmad. It comes by way of Hilāl ibn Khabbāb al-ʿAbdī al-Kūfī, who is trustworthy; al-Tirmidhī and others deem his reports sound.

A group of scholars have taken these ḥadiths as proof that the Middle Prayer (ṣalāh al-wusṭā) is the ʿAṣr prayer, exactly as the texts themselves state. Because of the strength of the narration, Qāḍī al-Māwardī held that the Shāfiʿī school is obliged to adopt this view. We have already laid out the evidence for this when discussing Allah’s words: “Maintain the prayers, and the Middle Prayer, and stand before Allah devoutly” (Q 2:238).

Another group have inferred from the Prophet’s action that it is permissible to delay a prayer on account of battle, the position of Makḥūl and al-Awzāʿī. Al-Bukhārī (3) entitled a chapter to this ruling, citing the present ḥadīth together with the Prophet’s ﷺ instruction on the day he sent them to Banū Qurayẓah— as will follow:

“Let no one pray ʿAṣr except at Banū Qurayẓah.”

Some of the Companions prayed ʿAṣr along the road, while others did not pray until they reached Banū Qurayẓah after sunset, and he did not censure either group. They likewise cite what is reported concerning the Companions and those with them at the siege of Tustar in the year 20 AH during ʿUmar’s caliphate, when they postponed the Fajr prayer until after sunrise because of combat and the imminent capture of the fortress.

Other scholars—the majority, among them al-Shāfiʿī—maintain that the conduct on the Day of the Trench was later abrogated once the Prayer of Fear (ṣalāt al-khawf) had been legislated; at that earlier time it had not yet been prescribed, and for that reason they delayed the prayer. This, however, is problematic, for Ibn Isḥāq and others hold that the Prophet ﷺ had already performed the Prayer of Fear at ʿUsfān, which Ibn Isḥāq—an authority on the campaigns—records before the Battle of the Trench; he likewise places the incident of Dhāt al-Riqāʿ earlier. Allah knows best.

As for those who say that the delay of the prayer on the Day of the Trench happened out of forgetfulness—an opinion some commentators on Muslim ascribe to certain people—this too is problematic. It is unlikely that such an oversight would occur among so large a company, given their intense concern to preserve the prayer—especially since it is reported that on that day they missed Ẓuhr, ʿAṣr, and Maghrib, and did not perform any of them until the time of ʿIshāʾ.

Imām Aḥmad (4) also said: Yazīd and Ḥajjāj told us, saying: Ibn Abī Dhʾīb related to us, from al-Maqburī, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Saʿīd al-Khudrī, from his father, who said: “On the Day of the Trench we were held back until a portion of the night had passed, until…"