Abu Ya‘la narrated it in his Musnad (30/1 and 40/2) through Sufyan, Shu‘bah, and Jarir ibn Abd al-Hamid, from Mansur ibn al-Mu‘tamir, from Hilal ibn Yasaf, from Wahb ibn al-Ajda‘, from Ali, with this wording.
This is an authentic chain of transmission. Abu Dawud and others also narrated it, as has preceded under no. (200).
These two hadiths demonstrate that the blanket prohibition on praying after Asr found in the well-known books of fiqh—even when the sun is high and clear—contradicts their explicit wording. The evidence relied upon for that position is the well-known hadiths prohibiting prayer after Asr without qualification; however, the two hadiths mentioned above qualify those hadiths. Take note of this.
- “Everything that is not remembrance of Allah, the Exalted, is idle frivolity, amusement, or distraction, except for four activities: a man walking between two targets, training his horse, playing with his wife, and learning to swim.”
Al-Nasa’i narrated it in the Book of Good Companionship with Women (folio 74/2), and the additional wording is his. It was also narrated by al-Tabarani in al-Mu‘jam al-Kabir (1/89/2), and by Abu Nu‘aym in Hadiths of Abu al-Qasim al-Asamm (folios 17–18), through two routes from Muhammad ibn Salamah, from Abu Abd al-Rahim, from Abd al-Wahhab ibn Bakht, from Ata ibn Abi Rabah, who said:
“I saw Jabir ibn Abd Allah and Jabir ibn Umayr al-Ansari engaged in target shooting. One of them grew weary and sat down, so the other said to him, ‘Have you become weary? I heard the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, say...’” Then he cited it.
I say: This is an authentic chain of transmission. Its narrators are trustworthy and are among Muslim’s narrators, apart from Abd al-Wahhab ibn Bakht, who is unanimously regarded as trustworthy.
After attributing it to al-Mu‘jam, al-Mundhiri said in al-Targhib (2/170): “With a good chain of transmission.”