Harmonising contradictory narrations (the time for Salat al-Asr) - Part 3

In the previous blog, we addressed the rationale for solving the seemingly contradictory narrations on the time for Dhuhr and Asr. We concluded that the narrations agreed with the premise:

• All other things being equal, the time for Dhuhr and Asr, is midday
• However, if you pray the nafila prayers, then the time for Dhuhr and Asr becomes later, and the varying terms mentioned for the time period after midday are only examples of how long it would take to pray the nafila prayers, and are not themselves the time for praying Dhuhr and Asr

I think it is important to develop this a bit further given I have had many questions about it, and given it has been quite long since my last post! Let’s look at another few narrations (apologise for the poor quality of translation!):

1. Muwathaq narration of Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Yahya al-Ashari, who said: “some of our contemporaries wrote to Abu al-Hasan (AS) about the narrations from your forefathers about a foot or two, or four, and a fathom or two, and shade like that and a cubit or two. And the Imam (AS) wrote: “It is not one foot nor two. Once it is midday, then the time for both prayers has started. If you are praying [the Nawafil of Dhuhr*] and it is 8 rakaats, then if you want, you can take longer, and if you want, you can take a shorter time, then pray Dhuhr. If you do not pray [the Nawafil of Dhuhr], then there is a prayer between Dhuhr and Asr and that is 8 rakaats [the Nawafil of Asr]. If you want, you can take longer, and if you want, you can take a shorter time, then pray Asr.” (1)

2. Also two narrations from Ismail ibn Abd al-Khaliq and Sa’eed al-A’raj, which talk about the time being midday on Jum’a and whilst travelling, which implies that what hinders the immediate prayer at midday is the Nafila prayers which are not required in these two situations. Therefore, the time is midday

3. Muwathaq narration of Zurara from Abu Abdullah (AS): “He said: ‘Rasul Allah (SAW) prayed Dhuhr and Asr with people when the sun reached midday in Jama’a without any reason …. And the Messenger of Allah (SAW) did this to widen the time for his nation.’”. This shows that it is correct to pray Dhuhr and Asr at midday, and any time after this, is to widen the time to pray Nafila prayers as has been previously explained. (2)

Reading all of these narrations together, we can see the following:

• The time starts at midday for both prayers Dhuhr and Asr
• The preference for Dhuhr and Asr is to pray the Nawafil, and because of this, there are specified later times (e.g. a foot, a cubit [two feet]…)

In the next blog we will look at why there still seem to be differences in the length of the time for this praying of Nafila in further detail i.e. why in some narrations it talks about two feet, and in others 4 feet….etc.

*Note the Nafila (pl. Nawafil) prayers of Dhuhr are 8 rakats, prayed before Dhuhr.
(1) Wasa’il, 4:133, Chapters on time, chapter 5, hadith 13
NOTE: Apologies in the previous blog, the hadith was wrongly attributed. Rather than being from al-Ashari, it is from Dharik al-Mahaarabi
(2) Wasa’il, 4:133, Chapters on time, chapter 7, hadith 6