Answer:

In this issue there are two major opinoins. Those who say that prayer is not allowed in prohibited times such as after Fajr, just before Zawal and after Asr. Those who deem this as an absolute prohibition they do not allow any optional prayer to be prayed - those which have a reason for their performance such as when entering masjid, or making salat for taubah etc.

1- They base this upon the narration of Abu Sa'eed Al-Khudri who said,

I heard the prophet of Allah say; ‘No Salat is to be offered after the morning prayer until the sun rises, or after the afternoon prayer until the sun sets. [Agreed upon] and in another version of Muslim, ‘there is no Salat after the Fajr prayer'

2- Uqba bin Aamir narrated: "there are three times at which Allah's Messenger used to forbid us to pray or bury our dead (a) when the sun begins to rise till it is fully up, (b) when the sun is at its height at midday till it passes the meridian and (c) when the sun draws near to setting till it sets." [reported by Muslim]

3- Umm Salmah said," Allah's Messenger came to my house after offering Asr prayer and offered two Rakat, then I asked him about that and he replied, "I was kept busy (and failed to pray) the two (sunna) Rakat after Zuhr prayer, so I offered them now." I asked him, "should we offer them if we miss them?" he replied "No" [reported by Ahmed]

4- Ibn umar used to beat people who used to pray sunnan after the asr prayer

From this we can understand that Nawfal prayers are of 2 types i) for a reason ii)without a reason.

So if there is a hadith showing him praying after asr and there is hadith with his nahi then there are those who took hadith of prohibition and gave it presidence over his action because as the prophet said, ‘when I have forbade you something then abstain from it completely'. This also shows that perhaps this was allowed for him alone and not for his ummah. This is the view of majority of ulema from Hanafia, ahlul hadeeth and also this was never happened just like that rather it was for a reason and whatever occurred for a reason then it should be restricted to that incident.

However, there are other ulema who deem performing sunnah after Asr. This was the stance of imam Shaf'ee that any salat which is due for a reason then there is no time limit restricting it.

Conclusion: a person shouldn't prayer after Asr because;

- The majority took this stance

- The companions would hit those who would prayer after Asr

- The narrations stating the prohibition are clear

- Allah has prescribed with each prayer optional prayers which are either before or after prayer. So those prayers that have no prayer after them shouldn't be prayed anything after them because making up missed sunah prayer was more obligated upon Prophet of Allah then us, thus he made them up after Asr.