Questioned about the evidence of the jurists for their division of the time of prayer into optional and necessary.

Another questioner : Regarding the mention of the time of the 'Isha' prayer by the jurists, some of them stated that 'Isha' has two times: a time of choice and a time of necessity. For the time of necessity, they cited the hadith . Do we accept this account of the time of necessity sometimes, meaning after the middle of the night?

The Shaykh : Before we tell you whether we accept it or not, is this time established by the Shari'ah?

The questioner : This is a hadith .

The Shaykh : What is the time of the other prayer with respect to 'Isha'?

The questioner : Fajr.

The Shaykh : Okay, and with respect to Fajr?

The questioner : The rising of the sun.

The Shaykh : No, the other prayer?

The questioner : There is no time for another prayer with respect to Fajr.

The Shaykh : No, there is the Dhuhr.

The questioner : Fajr ends with the rising of the sun, and this is known, of course.

The Shaykh : And 'Isha' ends with the middle of the night. What is the difference?

The questioner : I spoke about the time of necessity.

The Shaykh : You, what you intend is that she understands, but do you understand what I intend? ... This hadith, my brother, was not narrated to indicate that every prayer extends to the time of the next prayer; rather, it was narrated to indicate that if a person sleeps through a prayer, he is not held accountable for it; he is only held accountable if he intentionally delays the prayer until the time of the next prayer enters. However, this was not narrated to define the times of the five prayers. So, if a man slept through the 'Isha' prayer until after the middle of the night, and the time of Fajr had not yet entered, does it mean he can pray until the time of Fajr enters? There must be evidence here, and the evidence here is missing except for this hadith which they cited for the time of necessity, as you mentioned. But this is also refuted against them: the man here woke up; he did not wake up for the Fajr prayer and delay it until before the Dhuhr prayer. Before the Dhuhr prayer, he prays it because the time of the next prayer has not yet entered. No scholar at all says this. Therefore, we say that the time of necessity is valid for the prayers whose first and last times are defined in general, for example, the time of 'Asr and the time of Dhuhr. As for the time of 'Isha', you know that the prayer differs; the 'Isha' prayer differs from all other prayers in that delaying it is better than hastening it. But this better delay is, as he (peace and blessings be upon him) said, . This timing defined by this explicit text is not permissible to nullify with a hadith like "There is no negligence in sleep..." Otherwise, we would also nullify with it the hadith . This is not permissible, of course. Yes.

The questioner : May Allah reward you with good.