2780 — “Whenever we were travelling with the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, we would say, ‘The sun has passed the zenith—or perhaps it has not.’ Yet he would perform the Zuhr prayer and then depart.”

Imam Ahmad narrated it (3/113): Abu Muʿawiyah narrated to us; Mishjāḥ al-Ḍabbī narrated to us, saying: I heard Anas ibn Mālik say it. I say: This is an authentic three-narrator chain, among Ahmad’s three-narrator chains—may Allah Most High have mercy on him. Abu Dawud also narrated it through Musaddad, who said: Abu Muʿawiyah narrated it to us with this same chain.

I included it years ago in Sahih Abi Dawud, no. 1087. Then I came across a statement by Ibn Hibban explicitly declaring the hadith objectionable, and I considered it necessary to examine his statement. Thus, I say: Ibn Hibban said in his biographical notice on Mishjāḥ ibn Musa al-Ḍabbī in his book Weak Narrators (3/32): “He narrated a single objectionable hadith concerning a traveller performing the Zuhr prayer before its prescribed time; he cannot be cited as evidence!”

He then said: “I heard Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn al-Husayn say: I heard al-Hasan ibn ʿIsa say: I said to Ibn al-Mubarak, ‘Abu Nuʿaym narrated a good hadith to us.’ He asked, ‘What is it?’ I said, ‘Abu Nuʿaym narrated to us from Mishjāḥ ...’—and he mentioned the hadith. Ibn al-Mubarak replied: ‘What is good about this hadith?! Am I to say that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, used to pray before the sun had passed the zenith and before the prescribed time?!’”

I say: If this is authentically reported from Ibn al-Mubarak, then it is astonishing coming from an imam such as he. For the hadith does not report that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, would pray before the sun had passed the zenith. Rather, it reports that when the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, performed the Zuhr prayer, the Companions—or some of them—would be uncertain whether the sun had passed the zenith or not. This was only an indication from Anas that he, peace and blessings be upon him, would perform it at the very beginning of its time, after ascertaining