Question
What is the evidence for the condition of entering the time for the validity of prayer?
Answer
His saying, Glorified and Exalted be He: (So glorify Allah when you reach the evening and when you reach the morning (17) And to Him belongs all praise in the heavens and the earth and at evening and when you become noon) Surah Ar-Rum: 17-18. Abu Al-Layth said in Bahr Al-Uloom 3: 7: ((His saying, Exalted is He (So glorify Allah) means: Pray to Allah. (When you reach the evening), means: the Maghrib and Isha prayers, (and when you reach the morning) means: the Fajr prayer, (and at evening) means: the Asr prayer, (and when you become noon), in the sense of precedence and postponement, that is: the Dhuhr prayer)). Al-Hakim narrated in Al-Mustadrak from Abu Ruzain, that he said: ((Nafi' ibn Al-Azraq came to Ibn Abbas and said: Are the five prayers in the Quran? He said: Yes. And he recited: (So glorify Allah when you reach the evening), he said: Maghrib prayer (and when you reach the morning), Fajr prayer (and at evening), Asr prayer (and when you become noon), Dhuhr prayer. And he recited: (And after the prayer of the evening, there are three private times) [An-Nur: 58])). And when Ibn Abbas narrated: ((That the Prophet (peace be upon him) said: Gabriel prayed with me at the House twice, and he prayed Dhuhr in the first of them: when the shadow was like a shoelace. Then he prayed Asr: when everything was like its shadow. Then he prayed Maghrib: when the sun had set and the fasting person broke his fast. Then he prayed Isha: when the twilight had disappeared. Then he prayed Fajr: when the dawn had brightened and food was forbidden for the fasting person. And he prayed Dhuhr a second time: when the shadow of everything was like it for the time of Asr yesterday. Then he prayed Asr: when the shadow of everything was twice its length. Then he prayed Maghrib at its first time. Then he prayed the last Isha: when a third of the night had passed. Then he prayed Fajr: when the earth had brightened. Then Gabriel turned to me and said: O Muhammad, this is the time of the prophets before you, and the time is between these two times)), in Sunan Al-Tirmidhi: 1: 278, and Al-Tirmidhi said: ((A good, authentic hadith)), and Al-Mustadrak 1: 306, and Al-Hakim authenticated it, and Sahih Ibn Khuzaymah 1: 168, and Sunan Abu Dawood 1: 160, and Sunan Al-Daraqutni 1: 258. See: Al-Maraqiy, p. 215.