Answered by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
Question: When does `Asr time come in according to the Hanafi school? Is it at one shadow length or two?
Answer: In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
Walaikum assalam,
There is great difference of opinion within the Hanafi school about the time of Asr. This arose from the fact that both of Abu Hanifa’s main students, Qadi Abu Yusuf and Muhammad ibn al-Hasan, held Asr to come in at one shadow length, contrary to their teacher’s position of two shadow lengths.
As a result of this, though the majority of the texts of the Hanafi school followed Abu Hanifa’s position, there are many major texts that chose the position of his two main students, which is also the position of the other three schools, as mentioned by al-Haskafi in Durr al-Mukhtar and by al-Shurunbulali in Maraqi al-Falah.
As such, both are valid to follow when there is a need, such as if the congregation in your areas prays on the earlier time, as Mufti Mahmoud Ashraf Usmani and scholars in Damascus have explained.
Walaikum assalam,
Faraz Rabbani