Our point here is this: prayer at a prohibited time must either be purely harmful and never prescribed under any circumstances, like prostrating to the sun itself, or be prescribed in some circumstances but not others. The first possibility is false, since explicit texts and scholarly consensus establish that ‘Asr is to be offered at sunset, before the sun’s entire disk has disappeared.

His saying is established in the two Sahīh collections:

“Whoever catches one rak‘ah of ‘Asr before the sun sets has caught the prayer, and whoever catches one rak‘ah of Fajr before the sun rises has caught the prayer.”

The former ruling is agreed upon, while the latter is the position of the majority. Abū Hanīfah distinguishes between Fajr and ‘Asr, saying that if the sun rises, the prayer becomes invalid, because it then remains overdue while its performance is prohibited. In the case of ‘Asr, however, sunset ushers in a time when prayer is permissible, not a time when it is prohibited.

Ahmad and the majority have judged this distinction unsound. They say: the issue concerns ‘Asr during sunset, which is a prohibited time, just as the period after sunrise is a prohibited time. One is not permitted to delay ‘Asr until then, but one may have an excuse, as when a menstruating woman becomes free of menstruation or a sleeping person awakens. Even supposing that someone delayed it without an excuse, he is still commanded to offer it during the prohibited time, despite being able to pray it after sunset.

If it is said, “Offering it within its appointed time is obligatory,” the reply is: “Making up a missed prayer immediately is also obligatory,” because he said:

“Whoever sleeps through a prayer or forgets it must pray it when he remembers it; there is no expiation for it other than that.”