On the authority of Umm Salamah, may Allah be pleased with her, that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, prayed two rakʿahs after the ʿAṣr prayer in her house on one single occasion, and that she mentioned that to him, and he said: "They are two rakʿahs that I used to pray after the Ẓuhr prayer, but I was occupied away from them until I had prayed the ʿAṣr prayer."(1)

580 - Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm informed us, saying: Wakīʿ informed us, saying: Ṭalḥah ibn Yaḥyā narrated to us, on the authority of ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUtbah.

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(1) A sound ḥadīth; its narrators are trustworthy. Al-Muʿtamir: he is Ibn Sulaymān, and Maʿmar: he is Ibn Rāshid. It is in "Al-Sunan al-Kubrā" under number (1569).

Aḥmad also narrated it (26645) from ʿAbd al-Razzāq, from Maʿmar, with this chain of transmission, in a similar wording, and in it: "I never saw the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, pray after the ʿAṣr prayer ever, except on one single occasion. Some people came to him after the Ẓuhr prayer, and they occupied him..."

Aḥmad also narrated it (26598) via Abān ibn Yazīd al-ʿAṭṭār, from Yaḥyā ibn Abī Kathīr, in a similar wording.

Aḥmad also narrated it (26515) via Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr, from Abū Salamah, from Umm Salamah, who said: "The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, entered upon me after the ʿAṣr prayer and prayed two rakʿahs. I said: 'O Messenger of Allah, what is this prayer? You did not use to pray it!' He said: 'The delegation of Banū Tamīm arrived and detained me from the two rakʿahs that I used to pray after the Ẓuhr prayer.'" His saying "the delegation of Banū Tamīm" is an error, as al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar mentioned in "Al-Fatḥ" 3/106; rather, they were from ʿAbd al-Qays.

The author also narrated it in "Al-Sunan al-Kubrā" (348) via ʿAbd Allāh ibn Shaddād ibn al-Hād, from Umm Salamah, in a similar wording.

Aḥmad (26678) and Ibn Ḥibbān (2653) also narrated it via al-Azraq ibn Qays, from Dhakwān, from Umm Salamah, who said: "The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, prayed the ʿAṣr prayer, then entered my house and prayed two rakʿahs..." I said: "O Messenger of Allah, shall we make them up if they are missed by us?" He said: "No."

Al-Bukhārī (1233) and (4370), Muslim (834), Abū Dāwūd (1273), and Ibn Ḥibbān (1576) also narrated it via Bukayr ibn al-Ashajj, from Kurayb, the freed slave of Ibn ʿAbbās, in a lengthy ḥadīth, in which Ibn ʿAbbās and others sent him to ʿĀʾishah, may Allah be pleased with her, to ask her about the two rakʿahs after the ʿAṣr prayer... She said: "Ask Umm Salamah." And in it: "Some people from ʿAbd al-Qays came to me and occupied me from the two rakʿahs after the Ẓuhr prayer, and these are those two."

The ḥadīth has many narrations, which al-Dāraquṭnī compiled in "Al-ʿIlal" 9/237-239, and he mentioned the discrepancies in them, and said: "The ḥadīth of Bukayr ibn al-Ashajj is the most firmly established and most authentic of these ḥadīths." And Allah knows best. See also "Musnad" Aḥmad (26560), (26586), and (26651).