The difference between delaying the prayer and postponing it beyond its time

Question

Praise be to Allah.

May Allaah reward you for your keenness to understand the
matters of your religion, especially the prayer. We ask Allaah to help you
to fulfil this great trust, the trust of leading the people in their
prayer.

With regard to your question, it covers a number of topics:

1 – What was narrated in Saheeh Muslim is: the
Sahaabah sought permission to fight those leaders who changed and altered
things to the extent that they introduced new things that the Sahaabah would
denounce them for. Undoubtedly delaying the prayer from its time is one of
these changes, but they were not given permission to fight them so long as
the leader still established regular prayer.

It was also narrated in Saheeh Muslim that the Prophet
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said that there would be
leaders who would delay the prayer from its time, so he told the Sahaabah to
pray the prayer at the proper time, and to make their prayer with those
leaders naafil. There follow some of the ahaadeeth:

(i)The ahaadeeth which indicate
that it is not allowed to fight the leaders who change and alter things, so
long as they do not give up prayer altogether:

It was narrated from Umm Salamah that the Messenger of Allaah
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “There will be rulers
whose good deeds you will like and whose bad deeds you will dislike. One who
sees through their bad deeds (and tries to prevent their repetition by his
hand or through his speech), is absolved from blame, but one who hates their
bad deeds (in the heart of his heart, being unable to prevent their
recurrence by his hand or his tongue), is (also) safe (so far as Allaah’s
wrath is concerned). But one who approves of their bad deeds and imitates
them is spiritually ruined.” They asked. “Shouldn’t we fight against them?”
He replied: “No, as long as they still pray.” (Saheeh Muslim, no.
1854)

It was narrated from
‘Awf ibn Maalik that the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of
Allaah be upon him) said: “The best of your leaders are those whom you love
and who love you, who pray for you and you for them. The worst of your
leaders are those whom you hate and they hate you, whom you curse and they
curse you.” He was asked, “O Messenger of Allaah, should we not fight them
by the sword?” He said, “No, not so long as they establish the prayer among
you. If you see anything on the part of your leaders that you dislike,
denounce that action but do not break your allegiance to them.”

(ii)The ahaadeeth which indicate
that the leaders would delay the prayer from its time, but the Prophet
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) still enjoined praying with them
and he did not enjoin fighting them:

It was narrated that Abu Dharr said: “The Messenger of Allaah
said to me: ‘What would you do if you had leaders who delayed the prayer
from its proper time or killed the prayer from its proper time?’ I said,
‘What do you command me to do?’ He said, ‘Pray the prayer at the proper
time, then if you join them pray with them, and it will be a naafil prayer
for you.’”

2 – What is meant by ‘leaders’ (lit. imams) in this hadeeth
is rulers, as is clearly stated in the hadeeths of Umm Salamah and Abu Dharr
(may Allaah be pleased with them).

3 – This is the focal point of the question: what is meant by
delaying prayer from its proper time is delaying it from the preferred time.
Imaam al-Nawawi (may Allaah have mercy on him) said in his commentary on
Saheeh Muslim:

“The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him)
said: ‘What would you do if you had leaders who delayed the prayer from its
proper time or killed the prayer from its proper time?’ I said, ‘What do you
command me to do?’ He said, ‘Pray the prayer at the proper time, then if you
join them pray with them, and it will be a naafil prayer for you.’ According
to another report he said, ‘Pray the prayer at the proper time and make your
prayer with him naafil.’ What is meant by ‘killing’ the prayer is delaying
it, and making it like a dead person whose soul has departed. What is meant
by delaying it from its proper time is delaying it from the preferred or
best time, not delaying it from its time altogether, because what was
narrated from the earlier and later rulers is that they delayed it from its
preferred time; none of them delayed it from its time altogether. So we must
interpret these reports according to what actually happened.”

(Sharh Saheeh Muslim, 5/47 ff)

Thus it will be clear to you that there is a
difference between establishing prayer and delaying it. The ahaadeeth are
not referring to delaying the prayer from its time altogether until the time
for the prayer is over and then praying, rather what is meant is delaying it
from the preferred time, such as delaying ‘Asr until the sun has turned
yellow, or delaying Maghrib until the red afterglow has almost disappeared,
and so on. What is meant by not establishing prayer is not doing it at all.
Thus we may reconcile between the ahaadeeth. And Allaah is the Source of
strength.