Muwatta 1

Malik opens his Muwatta with this report, in the chapter on "the times of prayer". It is the first hadith that Yahya ibn Yahya al-Laythi transmits from him. ¹

Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri reports that Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz once delayed the prayer beyond its first time. Urwa ibn al-Zubayr came in to him and reminded him of what had happened earlier in Kufa: its governor al-Mughira ibn Shu'ba had delayed the prayer one day, and Abu Mas'ud al-Ansari came in to him in disapproval, arguing that Gabriel had descended and led the Prophet in the five prayers, each at its time, and that the Prophet prayed in accordance with his prayer, and then said: "This is what I was commanded." Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz asked Urwa to be sure of what he related, and asked: "Was it Gabriel who established the time of prayer for the Messenger of God?" Urwa answered that Bashir ibn Abi Mas'ud used to relate this from his father. ¹

The editor notes that the hadith was transmitted from Malik by a group of his students, among them Abu Mus'ab al-Zuhri, Isma'il ibn Abi Uways, Suwayd ibn Sa'id, and al-Qa'nabi, whom al-Bukhari cites (521), and Yahya ibn Yahya al-Naysaburi, whom Muslim cites (2/103). ^{1 2} He quotes Ibn Abd al-Barr in al-Tamhid that the wording of Malik, using "that" (anna), leads some scholars of hadith to read a break in the chain, since no hearing of Ibn Shihab from Urwa, or of Urwa from Bashir, is stated. Ibn Abd al-Barr then says that the hadith is "connected, with a sound chain" according to the scholars, because the companionship of its transmitters with one another is well known, and that Ibn Shihab witnessed what passed between Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz and Urwa in Medina (al-Tamhid 8/11–15). ²

The hadith is a foundation for the timing of the five daily prayers among Sunnis, and the chapters on prayer times in the books of hadith and jurisprudence turn on it. See Prayer. ¹