—reached half the night.” Muslim records it (2/116), as does Aḥmad (267); however, Aḥmad’s version omits the phrase “until half the night,” and instead reads, “until nearly half the night had elapsed.”

Another route is related by Qurrah b. Khālid, from Qatādah, from Anas, with the wording:

“until it was close to midnight.”

This wording is cited by Muslim as well as al-Ṭayālisī (267); the latter, though, transmits it as: “until half the night had already passed,” a variant that is anomalous and at odds with the other narrations.

There is also the marfūʿ report from Abū Hurayrah:

“If it would not burden my community, I would command them to delay the ʿishāʾ prayer until one-third—or even one-half—of the night.”

Al-Tirmidhī transmits it, while Ibn Mājah (234) declares it sound, and al-Humaydī (250, 433) also records it through the chain of ʿUbaydallāh b. ʿUmar, from Saʿīd al-Maqburī, from Abū Hurayrah. All the transmitters are those relied upon by al-Bukhārī and Muslim.

Al-Ḥākim (1/146) narrates it via another route from Saʿīd with the wording “until half the night,” without any uncertainty. Aḥmad likewise transmits it through yet a further chain from Abū Hurayrah with the wording “until one-third of the night,” again with no uncertainty.

Because Aḥmad also reports it on the authority of Saʿīd, from ʿAṭāʾ, the freedman of Ṣafiyyah, from Abū Hurayrah, the precise expression in this phrase has become inconsistent. See my commentary on al-Tirmidhī.