- “Ibn al-Khattab has done well.”
Ahmad (5/368) narrated it: Muhammad ibn Jaʿfar told us; Shuʿbah told us, from al-Azraq ibn Qays, from ʿAbd Allah ibn Rabah, from a man among the Companions of the Prophet, that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, performed the afternoon prayer. Then a man rose to pray, and ʿUmar saw him and said to him, “Sit down. The People of the Book were only ruined because there was no separation between their prayers.” The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, then said the above.
I say: This is an authentic chain of transmission. Its narrators are trustworthy and are among al-Bukhari’s narrators. The fact that the Companion is unidentified does not detract from it; he was Abu Rimthah, as stated in the version recorded by Abu Dawud (1007), through al-Minhāl ibn Khalifah, from al-Azraq ibn Qays, with similar wording. Al-Minhāl is weak.
The hadith has a corroborating report from Muʿawiyah, may Allah be pleased with him: the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, instructed that one prayer should not be joined directly to another until one speaks or leaves. Muslim and others narrated it, and it has been documented in Sahih Abi Dawud (1034).
The hadith is an explicit text prohibiting one from immediately beginning a sunnah prayer after an obligatory prayer without speaking or leaving, as many non-Arabs do, especially the Turks. At the Two Sacred Sanctuaries, we see that scarcely has the imam concluded the obligatory prayer with the taslim before these people, here and there, promptly rise to perform the sunnah prayer!
The hadith also contains another important benefit: the permissibility of praying after the afternoon prayer. For if this had not been permissible, he would have rebuked the man for that as well, as is apparent. This accords with what is established from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, namely that he used to pray two rakʿahs after the afternoon prayer. It also indicates that this was not one of his exclusive privileges, peace and blessings be upon him. The authentic report from him, peace and blessings be upon him—“There is no prayer after the afternoon prayer until the sun sets”—is to be understood as applying when the sun has yellowed, in view of authentic hadiths that qualify it