Among the later Ḥanafī authorities who leaned toward this harmonisation is the eminent Abū al-Ḥasanāt al-Lakhnawī, in his work “al-Taʿlīq li-l-Majd” (42–44).

As for the ḥadīth in question, it is authentic, yet its wording is disputed. It is transmitted with the phrase already cited (“asfirū: pray when it is light”) by al-Tirmidhī (289), al-Dārimī (277 T), al-Ṭaḥāwī (106) and al-Ṭiyālisī (129), all of them through Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq, from ʿĀṣim ibn ʿUmar ibn Qatādah, from Maḥmūd ibn Labīd, from Rāfiʿ ibn Khadīj.

This chain of transmission would be classified as ḥasan were it not for the fact that Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq relates it with ʿanʿanah; he was prone to tadlīs, so it remains possible that he heard it from ʿĀṣim only through an intermediary. Evidence supporting this possibility will appear shortly.

The report is also found in Abū Dāwūd (69), Ibn Mājah (230) and Aḥmad (4/140), all of them through Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah, from Ibn ʿAjlān, from ʿĀṣim, but with the wording: aṣbiḥū (“perform it when morning has arrived”) instead of asfirū.

Ibn Isḥāq likewise narrated it from Ibn ʿAjlān. Aḥmad (3/465) records: “Yazīd related to us; Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq told us; Ibn ʿAjlān informed us,” with that wording.

Abū Khālid al-Aḥmar, however, differed in his transmission from Ibn ʿAjlān, relating it with the wording “asfirū.” Aḥmad (4/142) brings it, as do Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd in al-Nasāʾī, Sufyān al-Thawrī in al-Ṭaḥāwī (105), and al-Dārimī, except that the latter says: nawwirū (“pray when daylight appears”).

Ibn ʿAjlān’s version is further corroborated, for Zayd ibn Aslam also transmitted it from ʿĀṣim ibn ʿUmar, though both the chain and the wording vary in his report.

As regards the chain, Abū Ghassān said: “Zayd ibn Aslam related to me, from ʿĀṣim ibn ʿUmar, from Maḥmūd, from Labīd, from men of his clan among the Anṣār, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said …” – and he mentioned the ḥadīth.