14 - Chapter: The End Time of Maghrib

522 - ʿAmr ibn ʿAlī informed us, saying: Abū Dāwūd narrated to us, from Shuʿbah, from Qatādah, who said: I heard Abū Ayyūb al-Azdī narrating from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr — Shuʿbah said: Qatādah would sometimes raise it (attribute it to the Prophet) and sometimes not raise it — who said: "The time of the Ẓuhr prayer is as long as ʿAṣr has not arrived, and the time of the ʿAṣr prayer is as long as the sun has not turned yellow, and the time of the Maghrib prayer is as long as the glow of the twilight has not disappeared, and the time of the ʿIshāʾ prayer is as long as half the night has not passed, and the time of the Ṣubḥ prayer is as long as the sun has not risen."

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Al-Jaṣṣāṣ held in "Aḥkām al-Qurʾān" 3/257 that this ḥadīth is anomalous (shādhdh) and is not to be used to oppose the widely transmitted reports (mutawātir) from the Prophet ﷺ concerning the beginning of the Maghrib time being when the sun sets. He said: It is possible that the report of Abū Baṣrah mentioning the rising of the "witness" (al-shāhid) is not in conflict with these reports, because a star may be seen at certain times after sunset before the darkness mingles. Since it is generally the case that some stars are almost always visible after sunset, this was made an expression for the setting of the sun. Moreover, if the criterion were the sighting of the star, then it would be obligatory to pray before sunset if a star were seen, because some stars may be seen at certain times before sunset — and there is no disagreement that it is not permissible to pray before sunset even with the sighting of the "witness." Thus the consideration of the rising of the "witness" falls away. See also "Nayl al-Awṭār" 2/4.

(1) In (H) and (YH): yaḥḍur (arrives).
(2) In (R) and (M): "and the time of the Maghrib prayer," and likewise in his subsequent statement: "and the time of the Ṣubḥ prayer."
(3) Its chain is sound. ʿAmr ibn ʿAlī is al-Fallās, and Abū Dāwūd is al-Ṭayālisī. It is in "al-Sunan al-Kubrā" under number (1512).
Aḥmad (6993), Muslim (612): (172), and Abū Dāwūd (396) also transmitted it via routes from Shuʿbah, with this chain.
Aḥmad (6966) and (7077), Muslim (612): (171), (173), and (174), and Ibn Ḥibbān (1473) also transmitted it via routes from Qatādah, with similar wording raised to the Prophet, and in some of them there is the addition: "And when the sun rises, refrain from prayer, for it rises between the two horns of a devil."

His statement: thawr al-shafaq (the glow of the twilight), meaning: its spreading and the surging of its redness, from thāra al-shayʾ yathūru: when it spreads and rises. Al-Sindī said this.