and before sunset.”

“And glorify Him during the night and after prostration.”

It is the Sunnah that has explained this, clarified it, and established its precise details.

Mass-transmitted reports establish that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, used to perform the five prayers at five separate times while residing in Medina and during most of his travels. Even during the Farewell Pilgrimage—his final journey—he performed each prayer at its own time, offering two units of prayer. He combined only the noon and afternoon prayers at ‘Arafah, and the sunset and night prayers at Muzdalifah. Hence Ibn Mas‘ūd said:

“I never saw the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, perform a prayer outside its time except the sunset prayer on the night of Jam‘ and the dawn prayer at Muzdalifah.”

He said this only because the Prophet offered the dawn prayer very early, while it was still quite dark. Jābir explained in his account that he performed it when dawn broke. Thus, Muslims agree on combining the prayers at ‘Arafah and Muzdalifah, because his combining these prayers during the Farewell Pilgrimage, but not the other prayers in which he led the Muslims at Minā or Mecca, is established through public, mass-transmitted, and widely circulated reports.

It is also established that he demonstrated the prayer times through his actions to someone who asked him about them in Medina, as Muslim related in his Sahīh through the reports of Abū Mūsā and Buraydah ibn al-Husayb. Gabriel explained the prayer times to him in Mecca, as narrated by Jābir and Ibn ‘Abbās. Muslim also related in his Sahīh the prayer times as stated by the Prophet