to any one of the four legal schools, and the clearest proof of that is Imam al-Bayhaqi (d. 458 AH). Although he was a committed Shafi‘i and supported that school in most issues, he explained the hadith in the very sense I cited earlier—contrary to the view of Imam al-Shafi‘i, may Allah have mercy on him—and he did not impose upon it a meaning it cannot bear, a meaning that offends sound Arabic usage and plain understanding, as others have done, even though they too claim adherence to the Shafi‘i school.

Fourth: ‘Ubayd ibn Jubayr’s statement, “thumma qurriba ghadā’uhu” (“then his morning meal was brought”), indicates that both the departure and the eating took place in the early morning (ghudwah), the interval between the dawn prayer and sunrise, as the Shaykh himself quoted from al-Qāmūs.

If that is established, I fail to see how the Shaykh can invoke this remark of ‘Ubayd to support the meaning he has read into the hadith. Whether Abū Basrah ate at the very beginning of the day—that is, after Fajr—or after sunrise, in no way does it corroborate the Shaykh’s claim that the departure occurred before dawn.