Second: Scholars agree that Abū Hurayrah did not accompany the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, or pray behind him until after the year of Khaybar, as established in authentic hadiths. He is the best-known narrator of the hadith of Dhū al-Yadayn, in which he reports that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, led them in that prayer. As related from him in the two Sahīh collections, he said:

“The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, led one of the two afternoon prayers, Zuhr or ʿAsr.”

Thus, we know that this did not occur before the year of Khaybar, but after its conquest. How, then, could it have occurred before Badr? Indeed, Khaybar came after the Battle of the Trench. Even if it were established that speaking during prayer was not prohibited until the year of the Trench, the incident of Dhū al-Yadayn would still have occurred afterward, so its ruling would not have been abrogated.

Third: Among the narrators of the hadith of Dhū al-Yadayn is ʿImrān ibn Husayn, as related by Muslim and others. They point out that ʿImrān embraced Islam after Badr. The compilers of the Sunan also related a similar report from Muʿāwiyah ibn Khadīj, who is said to have embraced Islam two months before the death of the Prophet, may Allah Most High bless him and grant him peace. ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar also narrated the hadith of Dhū al-Yadayn as Abū Hurayrah did. The compilers of the Sunan related it, and they state that its chain of transmission meets the criteria for authenticity. Before Badr, Ibn ʿUmar was still a child: he was fourteen years old in the year of Uhud. Ibn ʿUmar scarcely ever narrated incidents of this kind from that period, just as he did not narrate the account of the building of the mosque or similar events.