English Translation

Hadrat Abu Salama reported Hadrat Zaid b. Khalid al-Juhani as saying:I heard the Beloved Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) say, “Were it not that I would distress my people, I would order them to use the tooth-stick before every prayer, and I would postpone the evening prayer till a third of the night had passed.” He said that Hadrat Zaid b. Khalid used to attend the prayers in the mosque with his tooth-stick on his ear where a clerk carries a pen, and did not get up to pray without using it, after which he put it back in its place. Tirmidhi transmitted it, and also Abu Dawud, but he did not mention, “I would postpone the evening prayer till a third of the night had passed.” Tirmidhi said that this is a hasan sahih tradition.