Another supporting report is the ḥadīth of Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī. He said: “We prayed the ʿatamah prayer (the late-evening, i.e., ʿishāʾ, prayer) with the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—but he did not come out to lead us until about half of the night had passed. He then said, ‘Take your seats,’ so we sat down. He continued, ‘The people have already prayed and turned in for the night, whereas you will remain in prayer as long as you are waiting for the prayer. Were it not for the weakness of the weak and the illness of the sick, I would have postponed this prayer to the middle of the night.’”
Abū Dāwūd records it (69)—and this is his wording—as do al-Nasaʾī (92), Ibn Mājah (234–235), and Aḥmad (3/5) through the chain of Dāwūd b. Abī Hind, from Abū Naḍrah, from Abū Saʿīd. The isnād is sound, as al-Ḥāfiẓ affirms in al-Talkhīṣ (3/29). I add: it satisfies Muslim’s criteria.
Even so, we have found only two ḥadīths adduced by those—namely the majority—who hold that the time for the ʿishāʾ prayer extends until Fajr, and neither of them is explicit on the point.
- The first is the marfūʿ report of Abū Qatādah: “There is no negligence in sleep; negligence rests upon the one who fails to perform the prayer until the time of the next prayer arrives.” Some of the early literalists cited this as proof of the view just mentioned, and so did the critical scholar al-Shawkānī among the later authorities (1/10).
Ibn Ḥazm, however, refuted that argument forcefully, saying (3/178): “This ḥadīth gives no support at all to what they claim. They are unanimously agreed with us—with no dissent from any of the imams—that the time for the Fajr prayer does not run until the time of Ẓuhr. It is therefore clear that this narration does not establish that each prayer’s time continues up to the time of the prayer that follows it; it merely states that anyone who delays a prayer until the time of another prayer is sinful, whether or not the end of the first coincides with the beginning of the second. It does not contain …”