When the muadhdhin gave the call to prayer, some of the companions of the Prophet ﷺ would rush to the pillars and pray two rakahs before Maghrib until the Prophet ﷺ came out, while they were still praying. There was nothing between the adhan and the iqamah.Uthman bin Jabala and Abu Dawud reported from Shuba, "There was only a brief moment between them."
كان المؤذن إذا أذن قام ناس من أصحاب النبي ﷺ يبتدرون السواري حتى يخرج النبي ﷺ وهم كذلك يصلون الركعتين قبل المغرب، ولم يكن بين الأذان والإقامة شيء. وقال عثمان بن جبلة وأبو داود عن شعبة: لم يكن بينهما إلا قليل.
Bukhari narrated it in "The Adhan" (625) via the route of Shubah, who said, I heard Amr bin Amir Ansari, from Anas bin Malik, and he related the hadith.Muslim narrated it in "The Prayer of Travelers" (837), saying, Shayban bin Farroukh told us, Abdul-Warith told us, from Abdul-Aziz (that is, Ibn Suhayb), from Anas bin Malik, who said, "We used to be in Madinah, and when the muezzin gave the adhan for the Maghrib prayer, they would rush to the pillars and pray two rakahs each, until a stranger entering the masjid would think the prayer had already been performed, because of how many people were praying it."In another version reported by Muslim, from Mukhtar bin Fulful, who said, "I asked Anas bin Malik about voluntary prayer after Asr, and he said, 'Umar used to strike people's hands for praying after Asr. We used to pray two rakahs in the time of the Prophetﷺ after sunset, before the Maghrib prayer.' I said to him, 'Did the Messenger of Allah pray them?' He said, 'He used to see us praying them, and he neither commanded us nor forbade us.'"His saying, "they rush to the pillars," means they hurried and raced to reach them, in order to screen themselves behind them during the prayer.His saying, "there was nothing between the adhan and the iqamah," means there was not much time, meaning that they used to hasten through the two rakahs because of how little time there was between the adhan and the iqamah.