622), Ibn al-Jārūd in al-Muntaqā (281), al-Bayhaqī (2/458), al-Ṭayālisī (1/75, in the current arrangement of his Musnad), Aḥmad (1/129, 141), al-Maḥāmilī in al-Amālī (3/95/1), and al-Ḍiyāʾ in al-Aḥādīth al-Mukhtārah (1/258–259); all of them relate it through Hilāl ibn Yasāf, from Wahb ibn al-Ajdaʿ, from ʿAlī — may Allah be pleased with him — with the chain raised to the Prophet.

Ibn Ḥazm said, “Wahb ibn al-Ajdaʿ is a trustworthy, well-known Successor (tābiʿī), and the rest of the transmitters are too renowned to require mention. This is an additional, sound detail that may not be set aside.”

Elsewhere (2/271) Ibn Ḥazm explicitly declared this report from ʿAlī authentic, and there is no doubt about it. Hence al-Ḥāfiẓ al-ʿIrāqī remarked in Ṭarḥ al-Tathrīb (2/187) — a judgment followed by al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar in Fatḥ al-Bārī (2/50) — “Its chain is authentic.”

Al-Bayhaqī, however, strayed from the proper course when he said, “Wahb ibn al-Ajdaʿ is not according to their criteria.”

I say: Must a ḥadīth be upon the criteria of the two Shaykhs for it to be deemed authentic? Have they not declared many a ḥadīth outside their two Ṣaḥīḥs to be authentic even though it does not meet their criteria?! He went on to say, “This is a solitary report, whereas the earlier prohibition extending until sunset is supported by numerous narrations; it is therefore more likely to be preserved.”

I reply: Both sets of narrations are preserved. Granted, the one transmitted through numerous channels is stronger, yet it is not from the principles of the scholars to reject a strong ḥadīth merely because it outwardly conflicts with a stronger one when reconciliation between them is possible. That is precisely the case here, for this ḥadīth qualifies those to which al-Bayhaqī alluded, such as the Prophet’s ﷺ saying,

“There is no prayer after ʿAṣr until the sun sets.” Reported by al-Bukhārī and Muslim.