The chain and the wording are both in disarray. In this version ʿAlī is depicted as having missed the prayer simply because he was occupied with distributing the booty—something no scholar has ever allowed, nor has anyone maintained that the prayer may be postponed for such a reason. True, a few jurists did permit delaying the prayer beyond its appointed time because of actual combat, as al-Bukhārī related from Makḥūl, al-Awzāʿī, and Anas ibn Mālik together with a group of his companions at Tustar, and as he marshalled evidence for them in the episode of Banū Qurayẓah. Another group of scholars held that even this concession was later abrogated by the legislation of the Prayer of Fear (ṣalāt al-khawf). The point remains: no scholar has ever said that dividing the spoils excuses one from the prayer—yet this narrative ascribes exactly that to ʿAlī (may God be pleased with him), who himself reports from the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) that the “middle prayer” is the ʿAṣr prayer.

If what these transmitters report were sound, and ʿAlī had deliberately postponed the prayer on account of distributing the booty and the Lawgiver approved of it, that alone would prove its permissibility and would be more decisive than the evidence al-Bukhārī cited, for the event occurred at Khaybar in the seventh year after Hijrah—definitely after the Prayer of Fear had been legislated. However, if ʿAlī merely forgot the prayer until sunset, he is excused; in that circumstance its time extends beyond sunset, as the ḥadīth itself indicates. God knows best.

All of this points to the weakness of the report.

Furthermore, if one treats it as a separate incident altogether, distinct from the earlier accounts, then the sun must have been returned more than once. Yet none of the leading scholars ever transmitted such a thing, nor is it found in the famous compilations. This supposed “benefit” is reported only by transmitters whose chains invariably contain an unknown, discarded, or accused narrator. God knows best.

The author then cites it through Abū al-ʿAbbās Ibn ʿUqda:

Yahyā ibn Zakariyyā narrated to us; Yaʿqūb ibn Saʿīd narrated to us; ʿAmr ibn Thābit narrated to us.

He said: I asked ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ḥasan ibn Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī (ibn Abī Ṭālib) about the ḥadīth of the sun’s return for ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib: “Is it sound in your estimation?” He replied, “God has revealed nothing in His Book greater than the returning of the sun.” I said, “You have spoken the truth—may God ransom me for you—but I should like to hear it from you.” He said:

“My father, al-Ḥasan, told me from Asmāʾ bint ʿUmays that she said:

One day ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib came intending to perform the ʿAṣr prayer with the Messenger of God ﷺ, but he found that the Messenger of God ﷺ had already concluded the prayer and that revelation was descending upon him. ʿAlī supported him against his chest and continued to hold him thus until the Messenger of God ﷺ recovered, whereupon he said, ‘Have you prayed ʿAṣr, O ʿAlī?’ He replied, ‘I came while revelation was descending upon you, so I have remained holding you to my chest until this moment.’ The Messenger of God ﷺ then faced the qiblah—by that time the sun had set—and said, ‘O Allah, ʿAlī was engaged in obedience to You, so return it for him.’

Asmāʾ said: The sun came back, creaking like a mill-stone, until it reached the place it occupies at the time of ʿAṣr. ʿAlī rose confidently and prayed. When he finished, the sun again retreated, creaking like a mill-stone; and when it finally set, darkness mingled and the stars appeared.”

This version too is objectionable in both chain and text, and it contradicts the preceding narratives. The transmitter accused of fabricating or stealing the ḥadīth is ʿAmr ibn Thābit—that is, ʿAmr ibn Thābit ibn Hurmuz al-Bakrī al-Kūfī, a client of Bakr ibn Wāʾil, also known as ʿAmr ibn al-Miqdām al-Ḥaddād. He narrated from a number of Successors, and a group of people transmitted from him, among them