the farthest outskirts of the city while the sun was still blazing. I have forgotten what he said about Maghrib. He preferred to delay the night prayer—the one you call al-ʿatamah—and he disliked sleeping before it or engaging in conversation afterward. He would conclude the dawn prayer at a time when a man could recognize the person sitting next to him, and in it he would recite from sixty to one hundred verses.

Glossary of Unfamiliar Terms

1. “al-maktūbah”: the five prescribed prayers, i.e., the obligatory prayers.
2. “al-ūlā”: an alternative name for Zhuhr, because it was the first prayer Gabriel led the Prophet ﷺ in.
3. “tadḥaḍu al-shams”: the sun’s decline from the zenith toward the west; the verb can also mean to push away with one’s foot.
4. “while the sun was still ḥayyah”: a figurative phrase describing the vivid brightness of the sun, meaning that its heat and light were still strong.
5. “al-ʿatamah”: the darkness of night after the twilight has disappeared and one-third of the night has elapsed; here it refers to the ʿIshāʾ prayer.
6. “yanfatilu min ṣalāt al-ghadāh”: he would break away from—that is, finish—the dawn (Fajr) prayer.

Overall Meaning
Abu Barzah enumerated the times of the obligatory prayers. He began by mentioning that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ performed al-hājirah—meaning Zhuhr—immediately after the sun began its decline westward; that is the start of its time. He then prayed ʿAsr, and one of the worshippers could reach his home at the far end of the city while the sun was still bright, showing that ʿAsr was performed at the beginning of its time.

The narrator forgot to relate what had been mentioned concerning Maghrib, though we have already noted that its time commences with sunset.

The Prophet ﷺ preferred to delay ʿIshāʾ, for its superior time is toward the end of the period allotted to it. He disliked sleeping beforehand lest he miss its optimal time or the congregational prayer altogether, and because deep sleep might lead to neglecting the night prayer. He likewise disliked conversation afterward for fear that it might delay someone from Fajr at its proper time or from praying it in congregation. He would dismiss the people from Fajr when a man could still recognize the person seated beside him, even though he customarily recited between sixty and one hundred verses in that prayer—an indication that he performed it in the early-morning darkness (taghlīs).