Among them is the report narrated by ʿAbd Allāh ibn Bābāh from Abū al-Dardāʾ:

He performed tawaf after the ʿaṣr prayer, as the sun was nearing its setting, and prayed two rakʿahs before it set. He was told, “Abū al-Dardāʾ! You are Companions of the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—and yet you say, ‘There is no prayer after ʿaṣr until the sun sets’?” He replied:

“This town is unlike any other.”

Al-Ṭaḥāwī narrated it in Sharḥ Maʿānī al-Āthār (1/396), as did al-Bayhaqī (2/463), and its chain of transmission is authentic. Therefore, he had no choice but to affirm the validity of the exception mentioned in the hadith in question, saying:

“This statement of Abū al-Dardāʾ necessitates restricting this ruling to that place. And Allah knows best.”

There are other reports that attest to the soundness of this exception. For this reason, I find that al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr—despite having judged the chain of the hadith weak and declared it defective for the reasons mentioned above, to which a response has already been given—said in al-Tamhīd (13/45):

“This hadith, even if it is not strong—because of the weakness of Ḥumayd, the freedman of ʿAfrāʾ, and because Mujāhid did not hear from Abū Dharr—is strengthened by the hadith of Jubayr ibn Muṭʿim, as well as by the fact that the majority of Muslim scholars held this view. For Ibn ʿAbbās, Ibn ʿUmar, Ibn al-Zubayr, al-Ḥasan, al-Ḥusayn, ʿAṭāʾ, Ṭāwūs, Mujāhid, al-Qāsim ibn Muḥammad, and ʿUrwah ibn al-Zubayr would perform tawaf after ʿaṣr—and some of them after the dawn prayer as well—and, upon completing their tawaf, would pray two rakʿahs at that time. This was also the view of al-Shāfiʿī, Aḥmad, Isḥāq, Abū Thawr, and Dāwūd ibn ʿAlī ...”

He then mentioned those who differed from them. Whoever wishes may refer to it, for the evidence already cited makes it unnecessary to recount the views of the opponents—especially since he said concerning some of them: