It is narrated from Sayyiduna Bara’ bin Azib (may Allah be pleased with him), he says: When this verse was revealed {حَافِظُوْا عَلَی الصَّلَوَاتِ وَصَلَاۃِ الْعَصْرِ}, then for as long as Allah willed, we continued to recite it during the blessed era of the Noble Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and Allah did not abrogate it. Then Allah revealed it in this way: {حَافِظُوْا عَلَی الصَّلَوَاتِ وَالصَّلَاۃِ الْوُسْطٰی}. There was a man with the narrator Shaqiq, his name was Azhar, he asked Sayyiduna Bara’: Is the middle prayer (Salat al-Wusta) the Asr prayer? He replied: I have told you how this verse was revealed and how it was abrogated, the rest Allah knows best.