prayer after dawn except two prostrations.”

This wording shows that voluntary prayer after the break of dawn is prohibited, with the sole exception of the two rakʿahs of Fajr, for the purpose of the negation here is clearly a prohibition.

Many scholars, however, maintain that the prohibition begins only after the Fajr prayer has been performed, not merely from the appearance of dawn itself. They rely on several reports, among them:

• What al-Bukhari narrates from Abu Saʿid: “There is no prayer after the Fajr prayer until the sun rises.”

• What al-Bukhari likewise narrates from ʿUmar ibn al-Khattab: that the Prophet ﷺ said, “There is no prayer after the morning prayer until the sun has risen,” along with many other rigorously authentic hadiths of the same purport.

The evidence cited by the first group is open to objection and cannot stand against these stronger reports.

Points derived from the two hadiths

1- Unrestricted voluntary prayers are forbidden after the Fajr prayer until the sun appears and ascends roughly three metres.

2- Unrestricted voluntary prayers are likewise forbidden after the ʿAsr prayer until the sun sets.

3- From Abu Saʿid’s wording, “There is no prayer after the Fajr prayer,” it is understood—following normal Arabic usage—that the negation covers the entire genus of prayer. Yet when a negating expression in the speech of the Lawgiver attaches to an act, it is most appropriate to interpret it as negating the act in its legally valid sense, for the genus of prayer itself cannot be negated. The Lawgiver employs His terms according to their technical, sharʿi meaning.

4- Some reports indicate that the reason for the prohibition is to avoid resemblance to the unbelievers; from this it is inferred that imitating them and following them in their acts of worship, customs, and traditions is forbidden.

Benefit

The author did not address the third prohibited time—despite its being established in the hadiths—which is a brief interval beginning when the sun finishes rising until it passes the meridian. The unlawfulness of praying then is confirmed by several hadiths, among them what Muslim narrates from ʿUqbah ibn ʿĀmir: “Three periods the Messenger of Allah ﷺ forbade us to pray in or bury our dead during—one of them is when the sun stands at its zenith.” Muslim also transmits from ʿAmr ibn ʿAbasah a report that includes: “Then pray…”