Question:
Please explain the Hadith number 547 in Sahih Bukhari
Answer:
In this narration, Siyar (or Sayyar) reports: “My father and I went to meet Abu Barza.”
Abu Barza was a companion of the Prophet ﷺ. So, this narrator and his father went to visit that companion. When they met him, the narrator’s father asked a question. He asked:
“How did the Messenger of Allah ﷺ perform the obligatory prayers?”
A person from the next generation is asking a companion about how the Prophet performed the compulsory prayers. Now, when the companion heard the question, he understood that the question was not about the method of prayer, but rather about the timing of the prayers. From the context he realized what the questioner intended.
So instead of explaining the physical method of prayer, he explained the times at which the Prophet used to perform each prayer. He said: “The Prophet ﷺ used to perform the prayer called Hajīr.”
Now, the narrator clarifies that this prayer referred to what people today call the first prayer of the day among the daytime prayers. “Hajīr” refers to the midday prayer, which is what we know today as Dhuhr.
From this we can understand that at that time the word “Dhuhr” was not as widely used among people. They often described it simply as the midday prayer. He then explained when the Prophet used to pray Dhuhr. He said the Prophet ﷺ prayed it when the sun had begun to decline from its highest point.
Let us understand this. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west. There is a point exactly in between, when the sun reaches its highest position in the sky. When the sun begins to move away from that peak and starts leaning toward the west, that is the time when Dhuhr begins.
In earlier times people did not have clocks. So, they determined the time through the movement of shadows. When the sun is in the east, the shadow of an object falls toward the west. When the sun moves toward the west, the shadow begins to fall toward the east.
So by observing the change in the direction of shadows, people could determine when the sun had passed its highest point. At that moment, the time for Dhuhr begins. From the narration we understand that the Prophet ﷺ used to pray Dhuhr at the earliest part of its time.
Today we sometimes pray Dhuhr anytime within its time span, which may extend for several hours until the time of Asr arrives. But the Prophet ﷺ generally prayed it early in its time. Then the companion said: “He used to pray Asr.” Now, instead of giving a fixed clock time—since clocks did not exist—he explained the timing in a way people could understand.
He said: After praying Asr, a person could travel all the way to the far outskirts of Madinah, and the sun would still not have set. This means that the Prophet ﷺ prayed Asr relatively early, not very close to sunset.
If someone prayed Asr very late—say just before sunset—by the time he traveled to the edge of the city, the sun would already have set. But in the Prophet’s practice, after praying Asr one could still travel some distance while the sun was still visible.
The narrator then says that regarding Maghrib, the companion also mentioned its time, but the narrator says: “I forgot what he said about Maghrib.” Then he says: The Prophet ﷺ liked to delay the prayer of Isha.
Unlike the other prayers which were performed early in their time, the Prophet often delayed Isha. For example, if Isha time began around early evening, he might delay it further.
In other narrations it is mentioned that sometimes people—including women and children—would start becoming sleepy before Isha was performed.
There is even a narration where Umar (RA) says to the Prophet: “Messenger of Allah, please lead the prayer—people have already fallen asleep.”
So, the Prophet ﷺ delayed Isha intentionally. Why? Because he disliked two things:
- Sleeping before Isha prayer
- Engaging in unnecessary conversation after Isha prayer
The idea was that once Isha is completed, people should go to sleep rather than sit and talk late into the night.
The narration also mentions that the term Isha was not always the most commonly used name at that time. Some people referred to it as ‘Atama’, meaning the night prayer. So the companion clarified this terminology for the listeners.
Then the narration mentions Fajr (the dawn prayer). The Prophet ﷺ would perform Fajr and finish it at a time when a person could recognize the face of the person sitting beside him.
Remember that in those days there were no electric lights. People prayed in darkness before sunrise. When the prayer began, it was still dark enough that one might not clearly recognize who was standing next to him. But by the time the prayer ended, the light of dawn would have spread enough that one could see the person beside him. However, the sun had not yet risen—because prayer after sunrise is not permitted. This happened because the Prophet ﷺ used to recite long passages of the Qur’an during Fajr.
In some narrations it is mentioned that he would recite 60 to 100 verses in each rak‘ah. So if each rak‘ah contained 60–100 verses, the prayer itself would take considerable time.
Even though the prayer began early in its time, the length of the recitation meant that by the time it ended, the sky had already become noticeably bright. Thus, the companion explains that Fajr would end when the surroundings had become bright enough to recognize the person next to you.
So overall, this hadith simply explains the timing of the five daily prayers during the Prophet’s time. There is nothing complicated here—
The narration is essentially describing when the Prophet ﷺ used to perform each prayer.
