Nasai

479. Commentary:

➊ Yazid bin Abi Habib and Ja'far bin Rabi'ah are students of 'Iraq. Both have differed in the chain of narration (isnad) as well as in the text (matn). The difference in the chain is that in Yazid bin Abi Habib's narration, it is stated that this matter reached 'Iraq that Naufal bin Mu'awiyah used to say such and such, implying that 'Iraq did not hear it directly from Naufal. Whereas in Ja'far bin Rabi'ah's narration, there is explicit mention of hearing (sama') and narration (tahdith). It is possible that at first 'Iraq heard this narration through an intermediary, and later heard it directly, and thus narrated it in both ways. The difference in the text is that in Ja'far's narration, there is explicit mention of the 'Asr prayer, whereas in Yazid bin Abi Habib's narration, there is mention of "one of the prayers" only. It is possible that in Naufal's narration, there was no explicit mention of 'Asr, but it was present in the narration of 'Abdullah bin 'Umar radi Allahu anhuma. Perhaps at first 'Iraq used to narrate it ambiguously, and after clarification from Ibn 'Umar radi Allahu anhuma, he began to mention 'Asr explicitly in Naufal's narration as well. And Allah knows best.

➋ In hadith 475, there is mention of the nullification of deeds (habat al-'amal), and here, of the loss of family and wealth. In reality, that narration is about abandoning the prayer altogether, such that it is neither performed nor made up (qada). And this narration is about missing the prayer at its prescribed time due to laziness, but then performing it as a make-up (qada) after the time has passed. The loss of family and wealth is also not a minor loss.