Yahya related to me from Malik from Abu'z Zinad from al-Araj from Abu Hurayra that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "You are in prayer as long as the prayer detains you and there is nothing that prevents you from returning to your family except the prayer."

Once Malik bin Huwairith said to his friends, "Shall I show you how Allah's Apostle used to offer his prayers?" And it was not the time for any of the compulsory congregational prayers. So he stood up (for the prayer) bowed and said the Takbir, then he raised his head and remained standing for a while and then prostrated and raised his head for a while (sat up for a while). He prayed like our Sheikh `Amr Ibn Salama. (Aiyub said, "The latter used to do a thing which I did not see the people doing i.e. he used to sit between the third and the fourth rak`a). Malik bin Huwairith said, "We came to the Prophet (after embracing Islam) and stayed with him. He said to us, 'When you go back to your families, pray such and such a prayer at such and such a time, pray such and such a prayer at such and such a time, and when there is the time for the prayer then only of you should pronounce the Adhan for the prayer and the oldest of you should lead the prayer."

the mother of believers: Allah enjoined the prayer when He enjoined it, it was two rak`at only (in every prayer) both when in residence or on journey. Then the prayers offered on journey remained the same, but (the rak`at of) the prayers for non-travelers were increased.

Hudhaifa reported that Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) stood before us one day and he did not leave anything unsaid (that he had to say) at that very spot which would happen (in the shape of turmoil) up to the Last Hour. Those who had to remember them preserved them in their minds and those who could not remember them forgot them. My friends knew them and there are certain things which slip out of my mind, but I recapitulate them when anyone makes a mention of them just as a person is lost from one's mind but is recalled to him on seeing his face.

A man asked permission to enter upon Allah's Apostle. The Prophet said, "Admit him. What an evil brother of his people or a son of his people." But when the man entered, the Prophet spoke to him in a very polite manner. (And when that person left) I said, "O Allah's Apostle! You had said what you had said, yet you spoke to him in a very polite manner?" The Prophet said, "O `Aisha! The worst people are those whom the people desert or leave in order to save themselves from their dirty language or from their transgression."

We paid a visit to Khabbab who was sick, and he said, "We migrated with the Prophet for Allah's Sake and our wages became due on Allah. Some of us died without having received anything of the wages, and one of them was Mus`ab bin `Umar, who was martyred on the day of the battle of Uhud, leaving only one sheet (to shroud him in). If we covered his head with it, his feet became uncovered, and if we covered his feet with it, his head became uncovered. So the Prophet ordered us to cover his head with it and put some Idhkhir (a kind of grass) over his feet. On the other hand, some of us have had the fruits (of our good deed) and are plucking them (in this world).

My father had died in debt. So I came to the Prophet and said, "My father (died) leaving unpaid debts, and I have nothing except the yield of his date palms; and their yield for many years will not cover his debts. So please come with me, so that the creditors may not misbehave with me." The Prophet went round one of the heaps of dates and invoked (Allah), and then did the same with another heap and sat on it and said, "Measure (for them)." He paid them their rights and what remained was as much as had been paid to them.

Jabir bin 'Abdullah (Allah be pleased with them) said that the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) decreed pre-emption in every joint ownership and not divided-the one-it may be a dwelling or a garden. It is not lawful for him (for the partner) to sell that until his partner gives his consent. He (the partner) is entitled to buy it when he desires and he can abandon it if he so likes. And if he (the one partner) sells it without getting the consent of the (other partner), he has the greatest right to it.

The Prophet (saws) said: Shortening the salutation is sunnah (commendable).

The narrator 'Isa said: Ibn al-Mubarak prohibited me from reporting this tradition as a statement of the Prophet (saws).

Abu Dawud said: I heard Abu 'Umar 'Isa b. Yunus al-Fakhuri al-Ramil saying: When al-Firyabi returned from Mecca, he gave up narrating this tradition as a statement of the Prophet (saws). He said: Ahmad b. Hanbal forbade to report this tradition directly from the Prophet (saws).

When `Abdullah (my father) died, he left behind children and debts. I asked the lenders to put down some of his debt, but they refused, so I went to the Prophet to intercede with them, yet they refused. The Prophet said (to me), "Classify your dates into their different kinds: 'Adha bin Zaid, Lean and 'Ajwa, each kind alone and call all the creditors and wait till I come to you." I did so and the Prophet came and sat beside the dates and started measuring to each his due till he paid them fully, and the amount of dates remained as it was before, as if he had not touched them. (On another occasion) I took part in one of Ghazawat among with the Prophet and I was riding one of our camels. The camel got tired and was lagging behind the others. The Prophet hit it on its back. He said, "Sell it to me, and you have the right to ride it till Medina.'' When we approached Medina, I took the permission from the Prophet to go to my house, saying, "O Allah's Apostle! I have newly married." The Prophet asked, "Have you married a virgin or a matron (a widow or divorcee)?" I said, "I have married a matron, as `Abdullah (my father) died and left behind daughters small in their ages, so I married a matron who may teach them and bring them up with good manners." The Prophet then said (to me), "Go to your family." When I went there and told my maternal uncle about the selling of the camel, he admonished me for it. On that I told him about its slowness and exhaustion and about what the Prophet had done to the camel and his hitting it. When the Prophet arrived, I went to him with the camel in the morning and he gave me its price, the camel itself, and my share from the war booty as he gave the other people.

Yahya related to me from Malik from Ata al-Khurasani that he heard Said ibn al Musayyab say, "A traveller who has decided to remain somewhere for four nights does the prayer in full."

Malik said, "That is what I prefer most out of what I have heard."

Malik when asked about the prayer of a prisoner, said, "It is the same as the prayer of a person who remains in one place, except if he is travelling."

We observed the prayer after nightfall with the Messenger of Allah (saws), and he did not come out till about half the night had passed. He then said: Take your places. We then took our places. Then he said: The people have prayed and gone to bed, but you are still engaged in prayer as long as you wait for the prayer. Were it not for the weakness of the weak and for the sickness of the sick. I would delay this prayer till half the night had gone.

Yahya related to me from Malik from Da'ud ibn al-Husayn that Ibn Yarbu al-Makhzumi said, "I heard Zayd ibn Thabit say, 'The middle prayer is the prayer of dhuhr.' "

Once the Prophet delayed the `Isha' prayer until midnight and then came to us. Having prayed he faced us and said, "The people had prayed and slept but you were in the prayer as long as you were waiting for it."

"When the prayers were first enjoined they were of two rak`at each. Later the prayer in a journey was kept as it was but the prayers for non-travelers were completed." Az-Zuhri said, "I asked `Urwa what made Aisha pray the full prayers (in journey)." He replied, "She did the same as `Uthman did."

We visited Khabbaba who said, "We migrated with the Prophet for Allah's Sake, so our reward became due and sure with Allah. Some of us passed away without taking anything of their rewards (in this world) and one of them was Mus`ab bin `Umar who was martyred on the day (of the battle) of Uhud leaving a striped woolen cloak. When we covered his head with it, his feet became naked, and when covered his feet, his head became naked. So Allah's Apostle ordered us to cover his head and put some Idhkhir (i.e. a special kind of grass) on his feet. (On the other hand) some of us have had their fruits ripened (in this world) and they are collecting them."

"The Prophet said, 'The best alms is that which is given when one is rich, and a giving hand is better than a taking one, and you should start first to support your dependents.' A wife says, 'You should either provide me with food or divorce me.' A slave says, 'Give me food and enjoy my service." A son says, "Give me food; to whom do you leave me?" The people said, "O Abu Huraira! Did you hear that from Allah's Apostle ?" He said, "No, it is from my own self."

That `Abdullah bin Abi Hadrad Al-Aslami owed him some debt. Ka`b met him and caught hold of him and they started talking and their voices grew loudest. The Prophet passed by them and addressed Ka`b, pointing out to him to reduce the debt to one half. So, Ka`b got one half of the debt and exempted the debtor from the other half.

The Prophet said, "The Hour will not be established till you fight a nation wearing hairy shoes, and till you fight the Turks, who will have small eyes, red faces and flat noses; and their faces will be like flat shields. And you will find that the best people are those who hate responsibility of ruling most of all till they are chosen to be the rulers. And the people are of different natures: The best in the pre-lslamic period are the best in Islam. A time will come when any of you will love to see me rather than to have his family and property doubled."

Urwah ibn az-Zubayr reported on the authority of a woman from Banu an-Najjar. She said: My house was the loftiest of all the houses around the mosque (of the Prophet at Medina). Bilal used to make a call to the morning prayer from it. He would come there before the break of dawn and wait for it. When he saw it, he would yawn and say: O Allah, I praise you and seek Your assistance for the Quraysh so that they might establish Thine religion. He then would make the call to prayer.

She (the narrator) said: By Allah, I do not know whether he ever left saying these words on any night.

Yahya related to me from Malik that al-Ala ibn Abd ar-Rahman said, "We visited Anas ibn Malik after dhuhr and he stood up and prayed asr. When he had finished his prayer, we mentioned doing prayers early in their time, or he mentioned it, and he said that he had heard the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, say, the prayer of the hypocrites, the prayer of the hypocrites, the prayer of the hypocrites is that one of them sits until the sun becomes yellow and is between the horns of Shaytan, or on the horn of Shaytan, and then gets up and rattles off four rakas, hardly remembering Allah in them at all.' "