Abu Hurairah said, "I then met Abdullah bin Salam and mentioned the hadith to him."Abdullah bin Salam said, "I know which hour it is."Abu Hurairah said, "I told him, 'Tell me and do not withhold it from me.'"Abdullah said, "It is the last hour of Friday."Abu Hurairah replied, "How can it be the last hour of Friday when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, 'No Muslim servant comes upon it while praying,' and that is an hour in which prayer is not performed?"Abdullah bin Salam said, "Did the Messenger of Allah ﷺ not say, 'Whoever sits in a place waiting for the prayer is considered to be in prayer until he prays'?"Abu Hurairah said, "I replied, 'Yes, indeed.'"He said, "Then that is it."
أبو هريرة: ثم لقيت عبد الله بن سلام فذكر الحديث، ثم قال عبد الله بن سلام: قد علمت أية ساعة هي: قال أبو هريرة: فقلت له: فأخبرني ولا تضن علي. قال عبد الله: هي آخر ساعة من يوم الجمعة، قال أبو هريرة: كيف تكون آخر ساعة من يوم الجمعة وقد قال رسول الله ﷺ: لا يصادفها عبد مسلم يصلي وتلك ساعة لا يصلى فيها؟ قال عبد الله بن سلام: ألم يقل رسول الله ﷺ: من جلس مجلسا ينتظر فيه الصلاة فهو في صلاة حتى يصلي قال أبو هريرة: فقلت: بلى. قال: فهو ذاك.
Malik narrated it in "Friday" (16), from Yazid bin Abdullah bin Had, from Muhammad bin Ibrahim bin Harith Taymi, from Abu Salama bin Abdul-Rahman bin Awf, from Abu Hurairah, who said, "I went out to Tur, and I met Kaab Ahbar..." then he met Abdullah bin Salam and mentioned the same. Abu Dawud (1046) and Tirmidhi (491) both narrated it through Malik's route, and Tirmidhi said, "The hadith contains a long story, and this is a hadith hasan sahih."I say, Ibn Hibban (2772) and Hakim (1/278–279) graded it sahih, both narrating it through Malik's route, and Hakim said, "Sahih according to the criteria of the two Shaykhs."Nasai (1430) narrated it through another route, from Bakr bin Mudar, from Ibn Hadi with the same wording. Imam Ahmad narrated it through Malik's route with the same wording (23785), and through the route of Muhammad bin Ishaq (23782), from Muhammad bin Ibrahim with the same wording. Muhammad bin Ishaq is a mudallis and narrated with "an", however he is corroborated in Malik's narration from Yazid bin Abdullah bin Had.