Those who held it recommended to delay it

Abd al-Razzaq said: Ibn Jurayj informed us: I said to Ata: In your view, which time is best for offering the Isha prayer? He said: I heard Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) say that one night the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) delayed the Isha prayer until people fell asleep, then woke up, then fell asleep again. When they woke up, Umar bin al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) stood up and said: The prayer time is passing. Ata said that Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) said: Then the Prophet of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) came out. It is as though I can still see the scene now: water was dripping from his (peace and blessings be upon him) blessed head and he (peace and blessings be upon him) had placed his hand on one side of his head. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Were it not that I fear hardship for my Ummah, I would have ordered them to pray it like this (at this time)." Ibn Jurayj said: I asked Ata how the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) had placed his hand on his blessed head. To show me, Ata spread his fingers apart a little, that is, he opened his fingers, then placed the tips of his fingers on the parting of the hair, then brought the fingers together and began to pass them over the head in this way until his thumb touched the lobe of the ear on the side of the face.
Then he passed his hand over the temple and the edge of the beard. He was neither falling short nor going beyond. I asked Ata: How long did the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) delay the Isha prayer that night? He said: I do not know. Then he said: What I love most is that, whether you pray it in congregation or alone, you pray it late, as the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) prayed it that night. If that is hard on you when alone, or on the people in congregation when you are their imam, then lead them in it at a middle time, neither too early nor too late.

Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both) said: One night the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was occupied and did not attend to the prayer. He (peace and blessings be upon him) did not come out of his house, and we kept dozing and waking as we sat. Then he (peace and blessings be upon him) came out to us and said: "Apart from you, there is no one among the people of the earth who is waiting for this prayer."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both) that one night we kept waiting for the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) for the Isha prayer. When about a third of the night had passed, the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) came out to us and said: "You are waiting for a prayer that no follower of any religion besides you is waiting for. If I did not consider it burdensome for my Ummah, I would lead them in prayer at this hour." Then he ordered the mu'adhdhin, who called the iqamah, and then he (peace and blessings be upon him) led the prayer.

It is narrated from Sayyidah Aishah (may Allah be pleased with her) that one night the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) delayed the Isha prayer until much of the night had passed and the people of the mosque had fallen asleep. Then the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) went out to them and led them in prayer, and then said: "This is the best time for this prayer, were it not burdensome for my Ummah." These are the words of the hadith of Abd al-Razzaq; in the hadith of Hajjaj, which is reported from the Mother of the Believers Sayyidah Aishah (may Allah be pleased with her), he did not say the word "Isha", and the rest is the same.

Awf narrates: Abu al-Minhal narrated to us: I went with my father to Abu Barzah al-Aslami (may Allah be pleased with him), and my father asked him: Tell us at what times the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) used to offer the obligatory prayers? He said that he (peace and blessings be upon him) used to offer the Zuhr prayer, which you call the first prayer, after the sun had passed its zenith; and he offered the Asr prayer at such a time that if one of us went home to the far side of Madinah, the sun would still be bright. I have not remembered (what he said about) the time of Maghrib. He (peace and blessings be upon him) liked to delay Isha, he disliked sleeping before Isha, and he did not approve of conversation after Isha. When he (peace and blessings be upon him) finished the Fajr prayer, (it would be light enough that) each of us could recognize the man sitting next to him, and he would recite from sixty to a hundred verses in the Fajr prayer.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Jabir bin Samurah (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) "used to offer the Isha prayer late."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abu Sa'id al-Khudri (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) (one night) delayed the Isha prayer until half the night, then came out and led the people in prayer and said: "As long as you are waiting for the prayer, that time is counted as being in prayer."
"Were it not for (concern for) the elderly and the weak, I would have delayed this prayer until half the night." The narrator said: Perhaps he (peace and blessings be upon him) also mentioned those with needs.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Mu'adh bin Jabal (may Allah be pleased with him) that one night we were waiting for the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) for the Isha prayer.
He (peace and blessings be upon him) was delayed, so much so that some people thought that perhaps he had already prayed or that he would not come out now. Then the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) came out, and a man said: O Prophet of Allah! We had come to think that you must have already offered the prayer, or that you (peace and blessings be upon him) would not come out today. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Offer this prayer late, for you have been given superiority over the previous nations because of this prayer, and no nation before you offered this prayer."

It is narrated from Ubaydullah bin Abi Yazid (may Allah have mercy on him) that he heard Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both): he liked to offer Isha late, and he would recite this noble verse: "And in the hours of the night" [Surah Hud: 114].