I say: This chain of transmission contains weakness. ʿUbayd ibn Muhammad—al-Muharibi, their client, from Kufah—has objectionable hadiths, as Ibn ʿAdi stated. However, he was not alone in narrating it, as will be mentioned. Muhammad ibn Muhajir al-Qurashi was declared trustworthy by Ibn Hibban, and a group narrated from him. Yunus ibn Abi Ishaq al-Hamdani also corroborated him, reporting: Ibrahim ibn Muhammad ibn Saʿd narrated to us from his father, from his grandfather, with similar wording. Ahmad narrated it (1/170), as did al-Hakim, who said: “Its chain of transmission is authentic.” Al-Dhahabi agreed with him, and they were correct.

1745 — “Shall I not inform you of the prayer of the hypocrite? He delays the ʿAsr prayer until the sun is like the thin fat covering a cow’s stomach, then performs it.”

Al-Daraqutni narrated it in his Sunan (p. 94), and al-Hakim (1/195), through ʿAbd al-Salam ibn ʿAbd al-Hamid, who said: Musa ibn Aʿyan narrated to us from Abu al-Najashi, who said: I heard Rafiʿ ibn Khadij say: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said it. He then mentioned it.

I say: This is a good chain of transmission. All its narrators are trustworthy and among the narrators relied upon by al-Bukhari and Muslim, apart from ʿAbd al-Salam ibn ʿAbd al-Hamid. Ibn Hibban included him in al-Thiqat, and Ibn ʿAdi said: “I know of nothing objectionable in his hadiths; I have not seen any objectionable report in them.” Al-Azdi said: “They abandoned him.” This is sheer excess and exaggeration on his part.

The hadith is supported by the Prophet’s statement, peace and blessings be upon him: “That is the prayer of the hypocrite: he sits watching the sun, until, when it is between the two horns of Satan, he rises and pecks out four units of prayer, scarcely remembering Allah therein.” Muslim and others narrated it from Anas ibn Malik. It has been cited in Sahih Abi Dawud (440).