“I asked Abu Sa’eed Al-Khudri about the prayer of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. He said: ‘There is nothing good in that for you.’* I said: ‘Explain it, may Allah have mercy on you.’ He said: ‘The Iqamah would be given for the Zuhr prayer for the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, then one of us would go out to Al- Baqi’, relieve himself, then come back and perform ablution, and he would find the Messenger of Allah ﷺ still in the first Rak’ah of Zuhr.’”  

عَنْ صَلاَةِ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ ﷺ فَقَالَ لَيْسَ لَكَ فِي ذَلِكَ خَيْرٌ قُلْتُ بَيِّنْ رَحِمَكَ اللَّهُ قَالَ كَانَتِ الصَّلاَةُ تُقَامُ لِرَسُولِ اللَّهِ ﷺ الظُّهْرَ فَيَخْرُجُ أَحَدُنَا إِلَى الْبَقِيعِ فَيَقْضِي حَاجَتَهُ وَيَجِيءُ فَيَتَوَضَّأُ فَيَجِدُ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ ﷺ فِي الرَّكْعَةِ الأُولَى مِنَ الظُّهْرِ  

“I said to Khabbab: ‘How did you recognize that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was reciting in the Zuhr and the ‘Asr?’ He said: ‘From the movement of his beard.’”  

قُلْتُ لِخَبَّابٍ بِأَىِّ شَىْءٍ كُنْتُمْ تَعْرِفُونَ قِرَاءَةَ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ ﷺ فِي الظُّهْرِ وَالْعَصْرِ قَالَ بِاضْطِرَابِ لِحْيَتِهِ  

“I have never seen anyone whose prayer more closely resembles that of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ than so-and-so. He used to lengthen the first two Rak’ah of the Zuhr and shorten the last two Rak’ah, and he used to shorten the ‘Asr.”  

مَا رَأَيْتُ أَحَدًا أَشْبَهَ صَلاَةً بِرَسُولِ اللَّهِ ﷺ مِنْ فُلاَنٍ قَالَ وَكَانَ يُطِيلُ الأُولَيَيْنِ مِنَ الظُّهْرِ وَيُخَفِّفُ الأُخْرَيَيْنِ وَيُخَفِّفُ الْعَصْرَ  

“Thirty of the Companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ who had been at Badr came together and said: ‘Come, let us estimate the length of the recitation of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ for the prayer in which Qur’an is not recited out aloud.’ No two men among them disagreed, and they estimated the length of his recitation in the first Rak’ah of the Zuhr to be thirty Verses and in the second Rak’ah to be half of that. They estimated his recitation in ‘Asr to be half of the last two Rak’ah of Zuhr.”  

اجْتَمَعَ ثَلاَثُونَ بَدْرِيًّا مِنْ أَصْحَابِ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ ﷺ فَقَالُوا تَعَالَوْا حَتَّى نَقِيسَ قِرَاءَةَ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ ﷺ فِيمَا لَمْ يَجْهَرْ فِيهِ مِنَ الصَّلاَةِ فَمَا اخْتَلَفَ مِنْهُمْ رَجُلاَنِ فَقَاسُوا قِرَاءَتَهُ فِي الرَّكْعَةِ الأُولَى مِنَ الظُّهْرِ بِقَدْرِ ثَلاَثِينَ آيَةً وَفِي الرَّكْعَةِ الأُخْرَى قَدْرَ النِّصْفِ مِنْ ذَلِكَ وَقَاسُوا ذَلِكَ فِي صَلاَةِ الْعَصْرِ عَلَى قَدْرِ النِّصْفِ مِنَ الرَّكْعَتَيْنِ الأُخْرَيَيْنِ مِنَ الظُّهْرِ