The reply is:

This implies that the prayer may be delayed for an overriding benefit, just as the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, delayed it and said:

“This is a valley in which Satan was present with us.”

Another example is delaying it until someone else has purified himself so that they can pray together in congregation, just as they prayed Fajr behind the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, after sleeping through it. This differs from Fajr and ‘Asr whose prescribed times have not yet elapsed: under no circumstances may they be allowed to lapse. What we have explained establishes that the prohibition does not encompass every prayer even at sunrise and sunset; this applies all the more to the other times.

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Jubayr ibn Mut‘im reported that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“O descendants of ‘Abd Manāf, do not prevent anyone from circumambulating this House and praying at whatever hour he wishes, by night or day.”

This was recorded by the compilers of the Sunan. Al-Tirmidhī said, “It is an authentic hadith.” The imams al-Shāfi‘ī, Ahmad, Abū Thawr and others cited it as evidence and acted upon it, permitting circumambulation and prayer after Fajr and ‘Asr, as was also reported from Ibn ‘Umar, Ibn al-Zubayr and other Companions and Successors. As for the three times, two positions are reported from Ahmad. Other scholars, such as Abū Hanīfah, Mālik and others, do not permit the two rak‘ahs of circumambulation during