“There were two rakʿahs that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, never omitted, whether privately or publicly: two rakʿahs before the dawn prayer and two rakʿahs after ʿAsr.” It is cited in al-Irwaʾ (2/188–189), and the preceding narration is in Sahih Abi Dawud (1160).

Jaʿfar ibn ʿAwn corroborated Ishaq ibn Yusuf—namely, al-Azraq—though he differed from him in its chain of transmission, saying: from Misʿar, from Habib ibn Abi Thabit, from Abu al-Duha, through the same report. Ibn Abi Shaybah (2/353) and Abu al-ʿAbbas al-Sarraj in his Musnad (folio 132/1) recorded it. Jaʿfar ibn ʿAwn was truthful and was among the narrators relied upon by the two Shaykhs. Thus, if his memory was sound, Misʿar had two shaykhs for this report; otherwise, al-Azraq’s narration is more authentic.

Moreover, Ibn Abi Shaybah narrated from a number of the early Muslims that they used to pray these two rakʿahs after ʿAsr, among them Abu Burdah ibn Abi Musa, Abu al-Shaʿthaʾ, ʿAmr ibn Maymun, al-Aswad ibn Yazid, and Abu Waʾil. He narrated this from them through an authentic chain. Among them too were Muhammad ibn al-Muntashir and Masruq, as mentioned shortly before.

As for ʿUmar’s striking those who prayed them, that was among his independent legal judgments, based on the principle of blocking the means to wrongdoing, as indicated by two reports cited by al-Hafiz in al-Fath (2/65): one of them is in the Musannaf of ʿAbd al-Razzaq (2/431–432), Musnad Ahmad (4/155), and al-Tabarani (5/260), and was graded good by al-Haythami (2/223). The other is also recorded by Ahmad (4/102), and by al-Tabarani in al-Muʿjam al-Kabir (2/58–59) and al-Awsat (8848, according to my numbering).