Ayesha instructed me to write out a copy of the Quran for her, and she said, "When you reach this verse, let me know, 'Guard strictly the prayers, especially the middle prayer, and stand before Allah devoutly obedient' [Baqarah 2:238]."When I reached it, I informed her, and she dictated to me, "Guard strictly the prayers, especially the middle prayer and the afternoon prayer, and stand before Allah devoutly obedient."Ayesha said, "I heard it this way from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ."
أمرتني عائشة أن أكتب لها مصحفا وقالت: إذا بلغت هذه الآية فآذني: {حفظوا على الصلوات والصلوة الوسطى وقوموا لله قنتين} (سورة البقرة: ٢٣٨)، فلما بلغتها آذنتها، فأملت علي: حفظوا على الصلوات والصلوة الوسطى وصلاة العصر وقوموا لله قنتين. قالت عائشة: سمعتها من رسول الله ﷺ.
Malik narrated it in "Prayer in Congregation" (25) from Zayd bin Aslam, from Qaqa bin Hakeem, from Abu Yunus, the freed slave of Ayesha, Mother of the Believers, and he related it. Muslim narrated it in "Mosques" (629) through the route of Malik, with the same chain.In her statement there is evidence that the middle prayer, meaning the most excellent one, is other than Asr, and that it is Dhuhr, because the conjunction implies a distinction between the two.This has been answered in several ways. One of them is that this is an irregular reading that has not been established through mass transmission, and that the conjunction can be understood as explanatory, so that it agrees with the hadith of Ali, or that the "and" in it can be taken as superfluous. This is supported by what Abu Ubayd narrated with a sahih chain from Ubayy bin Kaab, that he used to recite it, "And the middle prayer, the Asr prayer."