When the Prophet ﷺ returned from the Battle of the Confederates, he said, "None of you should pray the afternoon prayer except at Banu Qurayzah."The time for the afternoon prayer caught some of them while still on the way. Some said, "We will not pray until we reach Banu Qurayzah."Others said, "Rather, we will pray now, for that is not what was intended of us."This was mentioned to the Prophet ﷺ, and he did not rebuke either group.
قال النبي ﷺ لما رجع من الأحزاب: لا يصلين أحد العصر إلا في بني قريظة فأدرك بعضهم العصر في الطريق، فقال بعضهم: لا نصلي حتى نأتيها، وقال بعضهم: بل نصلي، ولم يرد منا ذلك، فذكر للنبي ﷺ فلم يعنف واحدا منهم.
Bukhari related it in the Book of the Fear Prayer (946) and in the Book of Campaigns (4119), and Muslim related it in the Book of Jihad and Expeditions (1770), both of them from Abdullah bin Muhammad bin Asma Dubai, who said, Juwayria bin Asma narrated to us, from Nafi, from Abdullah, and he mentioned it. The wording given is that of Bukhari, while the wording of Muslim is, "The Messenger of Allah ﷺ called out to us on the day he withdrew from the Confederates, saying, 'No one is to pray Dhuhr except in the territory of Banu Qurayza.'" Some people feared that the time would pass, so they prayed before reaching Banu Qurayza, while others said, "We will not pray except where the Messenger of Allah ﷺ commanded us, even if the time passes." He said, "He did not reproach either group." That is the end of it.Hafiz said in Fath al-Bari (7/408) that most of those who transmitted this hadith mentioned the wording "Dhuhr," as Muslim did, except that some of the biographers of the Prophet's life mentioned the wording "Asr." He then attempted to reconcile the two wordings, and then gave preference to the wording of Muslim. Regarding Bukhari, he said, "Perhaps he wrote it from memory and did not preserve the exact wording, as is known of those who favor his approach in permitting that, unlike Muslim, who preserves the wording very carefully. The only reason I did not allow the reverse is that those who agree with Muslim's wording support him, unlike Bukhari." That is the end of it.Among the interpretations he mentioned was his statement, "Some scholars reconciled the two narrations by suggesting that some of them had already prayed Dhuhr before the command was given, while others had not prayed it yet. So it was said to those who had not prayed it, 'No one is to pray Dhuhr,' and to those who had prayed it, 'No one is to pray Asr.'" Others reconciled it by suggesting that one group departed after another, so it was said to the first group, "Dhuhr," and to the group that came after them, "Asr." Hafiz then said, "Both of these reconciliations are acceptable." That is the end of it.