—namely, al-Wāsitī—on the authority of Shuʿbah, from Qatādah, from Abū Ayyūb, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr, who traced it back to the Prophet: “The time for Maghrib lasts until the red twilight disappears….”

This chain of transmission is sound, yet Ibn Khuzaymah, after citing it, remarked: “If this wording is authentic, then Muḥammad ibn Yazīd is alone in reporting it; the other students of Shuʿbah narrated the phrase nūr al-shafaq (‘the light of the twilight’) in place of ḥumrat al-shafaq (‘the red twilight’).”

Al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar comments in al-Talkhīṣ (3/28): “I say: Muḥammad ibn Yazīd is truthful (ṣadūq),” and in al-Taqrīb he describes him as “reliable, firmly grounded, and devout.”

The view that “twilight” refers to the red glow is held by the majority of jurists and linguists; it is also the opinion of the two disciples of Abū Ḥanīfah. Al-Bayhaqī transmitted the report with a sound chain from Ibn ʿUmar, as recorded in Tahdhīb al-Asmāʾ (2/165), while al-Dāraqutnī related it (100) as a marfūʿ hadith but judged it defective. He likewise narrated it from ʿUbādah ibn al-Ṣāmit and Shaddād ibn Aws together, and from Abū Hurayrah as a mawqūf statement.

Abū Ḥanīfah, al-Muzanī, and a number of other jurists and linguists maintained that the intended twilight is the white glow that follows the red. Sharḥ Muslim concludes, however, that “the first opinion is the stronger,” and Ibn Ḥazm adopted that view as well (3/192–194).

It is recommended to hasten to the Maghrib prayer and perform it before the stars become mingled, for the Prophet ﷺ said: “My community will remain in good— or upon the natural disposition—so long as they do not delay Maghrib until the stars intermingle.”

This hadith is authentic through its various chains, many of which I have cited in the commentary on