I entered upon Ibn Abbas along with some young men from Banu Hashim, and we said to one of the young men among us, "Ask Ibn Abbas whether the Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to recite during the Zuhr and Asr prayers."Ibn Abbas replied, "No, no."Someone said to him, "Perhaps he recited silently to himself."He said, "May you be scratched! This suggestion is worse than the first. He was a servant commanded by Allah, who conveyed what he was sent with. He did not single us out from the rest of the people with anything except three things. He commanded us to perform the ablution thoroughly, not to consume charity, and not to mate a donkey with a mare."
دخلت على ابن عباس في شباب من بني هاشم، فقلنا لشاب منا: سل ابن عباس أكان رسول الله ﷺ يقرأ في الظهر والعصر؟ فقال: لا، لا. فقيل له: فلعله كان يقرأ في نفسه، فقال: خمشا، هذه شر من الأولى، كان عبدا مأمورا بلغ ما أرسل به، وما اختصنا دون الناس بشيء إلا بثلاث خصال: أمرنا أن نسبغ الوضوء، وأن لا نأكل الصدقة، وأن لا ننزي الحمار على الفرس.
Abu Dawud (808) narrated it, and this is his wording, as did Tirmidhi (1710), Nasai (141), and Ibn Majah (426), all through routes from Abu Jahdam Musa bin Salim, from Abdullah bin Ubaydullah, with the same account. Tirmidhi said, hasan sahih, except that Ibn Majah abridged it.I say, its chain is hasan because of Abu Jahdam Musa bin Salim, for he is truthful, and its sourcing was already given earlier in the Book of Wudu, in the chapter on the obligation of covering every part of the area to be purified.The narrations from Ibn Abbas differ regarding the recitation of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ in Dhuhr and Asr. Negation was reported from him, as in this narration, then uncertainty about it, as Abu Dawud (809) narrated from Ziyad bin Ayub, Hushaym narrated to us, Husayn informed us, from Ikrima, from Ibn Abbas, who said, "I do not know whether the Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to recite in Dhuhr and Asr or not."Then certainty about the recitation, as Tahawi narrated in Sharh Maani al-Athar (1/206) from Yazid bin Harun, who said, Ismail bin Abu Khalid informed us, from Ayzar bin Hurayth, from Ibn Abbas, who said, "Recite the Opening of the Book behind the imam in Dhuhr and Asr."He also narrated it from Ali bin Shayba, who said, Abu Naeem narrated to us, who said, Yunus bin Abu Ishaq narrated to us, from Ayzar bin Hurayth, who said, "I was present with Ibn Abbas and heard him say, 'Do not perform any prayer without reciting in it, even if only the Opening of the Book.'"He also narrated it from Ahmad bin Dawud bin Musa, who said, Ubaydullah bin Muhammad Taymi and Musa bin Ismail narrated to us, both saying, Hammad bin Salama narrated to us, from Ayub, from Abu Aliyah Bara, who said, "I asked Ibn Abbas, or he was asked, about recitation in Dhuhr and Asr, and he said, 'It is your imam (meaning the Quran), so recite from it whether little or much, for nothing of the Quran is little.'"Then Tahawi said, after narrating recitation in Dhuhr and Asr from a number of companions, among them Abu Qatada, Abu Saeed Khudri, Jabir bin Samura, and others, "When what we have mentioned from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ established the confirmation of recitation in Dhuhr and Asr, and what was reported from Ibn Abbas contradicting that was negated, we then turned to consider whether we could find anything indicating the soundness of one of the two views we mentioned." Then he favored, on the basis of decisive evidence, the obligation of recitation in Dhuhr and Asr.