I had my pre-dawn meal, then set out for the mosque. On the way, I passed by the house of Huzaifa bin Yaman and went in to see him. He ordered that a milking camel be brought, and it was milked. He also called for a pot, which was warmed up. Then he said, "Come closer and eat."I said, "I intend to fast."He replied, "And I too intend to fast."So we ate and drank, then went to the mosque, where the prayer was called. Then Huzaifa said, "This is exactly what the Messenger of Allah ﷺ did with me."I asked, "After dawn had broken?"He answered, "Yes, it was dawn, except that the sun had not yet risen."The narrator added, the distance between Huzaifa's house and the mosque was like the distance between the mosque of Thabit and the orchard of Hawt.Hammad also reported that Huzaifa said, "This is what I did with the Prophet ﷺ, and what the Prophet ﷺ did with me."
تسحرت ثم انطلقت إلى المسجد، فمررت بمنزل حذيفة بن اليمان فدخلت عليه، فأمر بلقحة فحلبت، وبقدر فسخنت، ثم قال: ادن فكل. فقلت: إني أريد الصوم. فقال: وأنا أريد الصوم، فأكلنا وشربنا، ثم أتينا المسجد، فأقيمت الصلاة، ثم قال حذيفة: هكذا فعل بي رسول الله ﷺ. قلت: أبعد الصبح؟ قال: نعم، هو الصبح غير أن تطلع الشمس. قال: وبين بيت حذيفة وبين المسجد كما بين مسجد ثابت وبستان حوط. وقد قال حماد أيضا: وقال حذيفة: هكذا صنعت مع النبي ﷺ، وصنع بيي النبي ﷺ.
Imam Ahmad (23361) narrated it through Hammad bin Salama, and this is his wording. Nasai (2152) narrated it through Sufyan, and Ibn Majah (1695) narrated it through Abu Bakr Ibn Ayyash, all of them from Asim bin Bahdala, from Zirr bin Hubaysh, mentioning it in abbreviated form. Shubah narrated it from Adi bin Thabit, who said, I heard Zirr bin Hubaysh narrate it from him as a stopped report (mawquf). Nasai said, as found in Tuhfat Ashraf (323), "We do not know of anyone who raised it to the Prophet except Asim. If his raising it is sahih, then its meaning is that daybreak had drawn near, just as Allah says, "When you divorce women and they approach the end of their term" [Baqarah 2:231], meaning when they approach reaching that point, and just as one might say, 'We reached the place,' when he is approaching it." End of quote.I say, it is as he said, but its ruling is that of a raised report (marfu), for it is not for a companion to specify the exact time when the pre-dawn meal begins and ends, especially since it has come as a raised report through Asim bin Bahdala. Even though he is of lesser standing than Adi bin Thabit, this does not prevent accepting his addition, since it is known among the scholars of hadith that a report might be raised to the Prophet at one time and left as a stopped report at another.Among these stopped reports is what Nasai also narrated (2154) from Amr bin Ali, who said, Muhammad bin Fudayl narrated to us, who said, Abu Yafur narrated to us, who said, Ibrahim narrated to us, from Salah bin Zafar, who said, "I had the pre-dawn meal with Huzaifa, then we went out to the masjid and prayed the two rakahs of Fajr, then the call to prayer for the obligatory prayer was given and we prayed."Among them also is what Abdul-Razzaq narrated (7606) from Israil, from Amir bin Shaqiq, from Shaqiq bin Salama, who said, "Zirr bin Hubaysh and I went to Huzaifa while he was in the house of Harith bin Abu Rabia. We asked permission to enter, and he came out to us. Milk was brought, and he said, 'Drink, both of you.' We said, 'We intend to fast.' He said, 'I too intend to fast.' Then he drank, then handed it to Zirr, who drank, then he handed it to me, and I drank, while the muezzin was calling the adhan in the masjid." He said, "When we entered the masjid, the call to the obligatory prayer had been given, and they were praying while it was still dark."Some scholars have understood from these hadiths that Huzaifa took his pre-dawn meal after the break of dawn, though this is not clearly evident from Huzaifa's words. But based on this understanding, they said, this is abrogated by the hadith about Bilal, that he calls the adhan while it is still night, while Ibn Umm Maktum calls it when dawn has broken. Tahawi narrated the hadith of Huzaifa in his Sharh (2/106) through Hammad bin Salama, from Asim, in abbreviated form, and said, "It is possible that the hadith of Huzaifa predates the revelation of Allah's words, "And eat and drink until the white thread of dawn becomes distinct to you from the black thread, then complete the fast until night" [Surah Baqarah 2:187]."I say, it is not apparent that Huzaifa took his pre-dawn meal after the break of dawn, such that we would need to resort to abrogation. For all that the matter amounts to is that he ate the pre-dawn meal, then went out to the masjid in the morning, prayed two rakahs, and then the call to the obligatory prayer was given, and he prayed the dawn prayer. It may well be that Huzaifa delayed the pre-dawn meal to such an extent that the muezzin had already begun calling the adhan for the Fajr prayer.There are other hadiths on this subject that have already been referenced earlier in the book on the adhan.