Scholarly Divergence:
Authentic reports portray the Prophet’s prayer as lengthy: after he pronounced the opening takbīr (saying “Allāhu akbar”), a man could walk to al-Baqīʿ cemetery, relieve himself, return, perform ablution, and still catch the first rakʿah (cycle of prayer) with the Prophet ﷺ. In obligatory prayers he would sometimes recite the long surahs—al-Baqarah, al-Nisāʾ, al-Aʿrāf—and the long chapters from the Mufassal section such as Qāf, al-Ṭūr, and their likes.

Other authentic narrations urge brevity; among them are the two hadiths before us. They mention that he would recite “Say, O disbelievers” (al-Kāfirūn) and “Purity is Allah’s” (al-Ikhlāṣ) and similar short passages.

On the strength of these proofs people have differed: some favor lengthening the prayer in line with the first set of reports, while others prefer shortening it in accordance with the second.

In truth—praise be to Allah—there is no contradiction between these hadiths; they are perfectly consistent. Length and brevity are relative concepts with no fixed limits, for people’s capacities vary widely. Those who peck through the prayer regard an average-length prayer as long, whereas devoted worshippers find it short.

Let one turn to the Prophet’s statements and the way he actually prayed, combine them, and the decisive truth will emerge. Al-Sanʿānī noted that the Prophet ﷺ lengthened his prayer because he knew the condition of those behind him, while the command to shorten the prayer is addressed to the ummah.

Points Derived from the Two Hadiths

1. The imam is obliged to shorten the congregational prayer when leading others.
2. The Prophet ﷺ became angry with those who burden the worshippers, considering such conduct a source of trial.
3. An individual praying alone may prolong his prayer as much as he wishes, provided the prayer time does not expire while he is still praying; this prevents the benefit of striving for completeness through length from clashing with the harm of praying outside its time.
4. The weak and those with pressing needs must be taken into account during the prayer.
5. There is no objection to lengthening the prayer when the group of followers is small and they all prefer a longer prayer.
6. One should make the path to goodness easy, endear it to people, and encourage them toward it, for this fosters harmony and is an effective invitation to Islam.