However, I am of the view that Hishām’s statement, “thirteen,” is a slip, because al-Zuhrī disagreed with him in the version reported by Mālik (1/141) and, through Mālik, by Muslim (2/165) and Abū ʿAwānah (2/326), where he related—on the authority of ʿUrwah … “eleven.”

The same has been transmitted by al-Bukhārī (3/6), Muslim, and Abū ʿAwānah through other chains from al-Zuhrī. ʿImrān ibn Mālik corroborated it (his wording will appear shortly), as did Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar ibn al-Zubayr, both narrating from ʿUrwah. Indeed, there is even a report from Hishām himself: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq said, “Hishām ibn ʿUrwah ibn al-Zubayr and Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar ibn al-Zubayr both narrated to me from ʿUrwah ibn al-Zubayr, from ʿĀʾishah, the wife of the Prophet ﷺ, who said:

‘The Messenger of Allah ﷺ would pray thirteen rakʿahs at night, together with two rakʿahs after dawn and before sunrise: eleven rakʿahs of the night—six performed two by two—and he would perform witir with five in which he did not sit except in the last.’

Aḥmad recorded it (6/276) with a sound chain.

This narration shows that Hishām vacillated in transmitting the ḥadīth: at times he counts the two Sunnah rakʿahs of Fajr in addition to the “thirteen,” and at other times he includes them within that number. The latter is correct for two reasons:

1. It agrees with the reports of the other trustworthy transmitters from ʿUrwah.
2. It matches the alternative routes from ʿĀʾishah, such as the report of al-Qāsim from her—which explicitly states that the total is thirteen including the two rakʿahs of Fajr, cited earlier—and likewise the narration of Abū Salamah from her, worded:

‘His prayer in Ramadan and at other times was thirteen rakʿahs, among them the two rakʿahs of Fajr.’

Muslim recorded this (2/167). A similar wording is found in the report of ʿImrān from ʿUrwah: ‘He used to pray thirteen rakʿahs including the two of Fajr.’