He was asked about the hadith of Ibn 'Abbas when he combined the prayers, and a man stood up and said to him, "Prayer, prayer," to which Ibn 'Abbas replied

The questioner : Yes, the Hanafis also applied this logic to the combination in the settled state, just as they did for travel. When Ibn 'Abbas prayed in Madinah or in Iraq, he combined the prayers by delaying the Zuhr and advancing the 'Asr. They also rejected this based on that same logic, even in the settled state.

The Shaykh : And where is this?

The questioner : The Hanafis...

The Shaykh : Where is this hadith you are talking about, where Ibn 'Abbas did such and such?

The questioner : The hadith mentions that Ibn 'Abbas prayed in Madinah, delaying the Zuhr and advancing the 'Asr. A man stood up and said, "The prayer! The prayer!" and he said: "May your mother be bereaved of you! Do you think you are teaching me the Sunnah?"

The Shaykh : I am asking you: do you mean that in this hadith, it is the apparent combination?

The questioner : I told you, yes, they...

The Shaykh : Tell me, tell me.

The questioner : Yes, yes.

The Shaykh : The apparent combination.

The questioner : Yes.

The Shaykh : This does not establish the apparent combination.

The questioner : I said so. Imagine, also Abu Malik, Professor Abu Malik...

Another questioner : Hehehe.

The questioner : It is as if he has adopted this opinion. I do not know, and today there was a report on this matter.

The Shaykh : A report on what?

The questioner : On this matter...

The Shaykh : I did not hear him speak on the topic.

The questioner : In *Irsad al-Sari*, he mentioned something of this speech.

The Shaykh : The point is that the hadith of Ibn 'Abbas does not explicitly state the apparent combination. And the truth is, I am saying this now openly, though I have not said it before, that the apparent combination is an innovation of the Hanafis. This is because there is no explicit statement in the Shari'ah, in any hadith, regarding the apparent combination at all. But as I said earlier, and the tape is with you, I hope you preserve this explanation I gave before the answer: the Hanafis did not advocate for the apparent combination except as an attempt to reconcile the hadiths of combination that did not explicitly state the real combination, and that did not explicitly state that the combination was a combination by advancing the prayer, but rather that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) combined the Zuhr and the 'Asr. So, their attempt to reconcile the verse with the hadiths of combination led them to this interpretation. We agree with them that a scholar is sometimes compelled to use interpretation to reconcile two texts whose apparent meanings seem to conflict and contradict. However, if there is not enough to justify the burden of interpretation, as I told you earlier, the hadith from Anas states that when the Messenger (peace be upon him) combined, he delayed the Zuhr prayer until the beginning of the 'Asr prayer time. This invalidates the apparent combination. There is no hadith in the world that says he delayed the Zuhr prayer until before the time of 'Asr, or before it. But that he combined it until the beginning of the 'Asr time, this is found in Sahih Muslim, as we mentioned. So, this hadith of Ibn 'Abbas speaks of combination but does not specify the type of combination.

The questioner : Yes.

The Shaykh : The hadith of Ibn 'Abbas that you mentioned first is not our hadith. The hadith you mentioned is in Sahih al-Bukhari, and it is not about Zuhr and 'Asr, but about Maghrib and 'Isha. Do you see? He was delivering the sermon until the stars appeared, and someone reminded him, saying to him, "The prayer! The prayer!" and he rebuked him with that phrase, "Do you think you are teaching me the prayer?" He said, "The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) combined..." and he mentioned the hadith without the addition that is in Sahih Muslim. He was asked what he intended by that, and he said he intended not to burden his Ummah. In your hadith, and not in mine, one of the narrators is Abu al-Shu'tha.

The questioner : Yes.

The Shaykh : One of them said to him, "I see that this combination is as you described," and he said to him, "And I see that too." So, there is no text from Ibn 'Abbas stating that the combination is an apparent combination. This is the summary of what is said. Then, this combination, if it occurs, occurs due to circumstances; it is not prescribed that this combination must happen. For example, the adhan for the Maghrib prayer is called while Ibn 'Abbas is delivering the sermon, and he finds that the gathering is assembled and listening. He does not want to cut off this discussion and this knowledge in order to hasten the performance of the Maghrib prayer at the beginning of its time, before the stars become dense, as is known in the Sunnah. He wants to finish the lecture or the sermon he was delivering. If the sermon ends before the 'Isha prayer, he prays the Maghrib. If the sermon ends after the 'Isha prayer, he prays the Maghrib. I want from this statement that it not be imposed on him that he must, if he wants to combine, intentionally delay the first prayer until just before the time of the second enters. This, as we said, is difficult. So, the combination is to solve a problem. If this combination requires advancing, we advance. If it requires delaying, we actually delay. If it requires delaying until just before the time of the other, there is no objection. But to impose that as a requirement on the Muslim, we do not find in what we know of the Sunnah anything that obligates us to do so. Other than that.