Al-Layth ibn Saʿd narrated to us from Yazīd ibn Abī Ḥabīb, from Abū al-Ṭufayl ʿĀmir ibn Wāthilah, from Muʿādh ibn Jabal—attributed to the Prophet ﷺ.
Abū Dāwūd said, “No one transmitted this ḥadith except Qutaybah alone.”
I say: He is a trustworthy, firmly established narrator, so his being the sole transmitter does not harm the report, provided it is sound. On that basis al-Tirmidhī said, “A ḥadith that is ḥasan gharīb (good and singular); Qutaybah alone transmitted it, and we know of no one who narrated it from al-Layth besides him.” In another place he said, “A ḥadith that is ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ (good and authentic).”
I say: This verdict is correct, for every transmitter in the chain is trustworthy and belongs to the narrators relied upon by the two Shaykhs (al-Bukhārī and Muslim). Ibn al-Qayyim and others judged it authentic, while al-Ḥākim and others levelled criticisms that do not undermine it, as I clarified in Irwāʾ al-Ghalīl ⦗571⦘. There I also cited a corroborating chain for Qutaybah and additional supporting reports that leave anyone who examines them convinced of the ḥadith’s authenticity.
Mālik (1/143/2) likewise reported it through another route from Abū al-Ṭufayl with the wording:
“They set out with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ in the year of Tabūk. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ would combine ẓuhr with ʿaṣr and maghrib with ʿishāʾ. One day he delayed the prayer, then came out and performed ẓuhr and ʿaṣr together; he then went back inside, came out again, and performed maghrib and ʿishāʾ together.”
Through Mālik’s route it was recorded by Muslim (7/60), Abū Dāwūd (1206), al-Nasāʾī (1/98), al-Dāramī (1/356), al-Ṭaḥāwī (1/95), al-Bayhaqī (3/162) and Aḥmad (5/237). In another narration in Muslim (2/152) and elsewhere, via a different chain, it states: “I asked, ‘What prompted him to do that?’ He replied, ‘He wished not to impose hardship on his community.’”
Legal Inferences from the ḥadith
It includes several points:
1 – The permissibility of combining two prayers during travel, even when one is not at ʿArafah or Muzdalifah; and it is