Concerning the Traveler’s Prayer

With regard to shortening the four-rakʿah prayer, he says: “It is reported from Yaʿlā ibn Umayyah that he said, ‘I asked ʿUmar ibn al-Khattāb …’ ʿUmar replied, ‘I was amazed at the very thing that amazed you, so I mentioned it to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and he said, “It is a charity that Allah has bestowed upon you, so accept His charity.”’ It was narrated by the compilers.”

I say: al-Bukhārī did not transmit this ḥadith at all, and al-Muntaqā expressly states: “It was narrated by the compilers except al-Bukhārī.” It seems, therefore, that the words “except al-Bukhārī” dropped out in the course of typesetting or by some other means.

He also says: “ʿĀʾishah reported: ‘The prayer was first prescribed in Mecca as two rakʿahs, two rakʿahs. When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ reached Medina he added two rakʿahs to each prayer, except Maghrib—for it is the Witr of the daytime—and the dawn prayer, because of the length of its recitation. Whenever he travelled he would perform the prayer in its original form.’ It was narrated by Aḥmad, al-Bayhaqī, Ibn Ḥibbān, and Ibn Khuzaymah, and its transmitters are trustworthy.”

I say: This verdict of reliability—which he has cited from Majmaʿ al-Zawāʾid 2/154 and attributed to Aḥmad—applies only to Aḥmad’s chain (6/241, 265) and to one of al-Bayhaqī’s two chains (3/145), yet even there the link between ʿĀmir al-Shaʿbī and ʿĀʾishah is broken. The versions of Ibn Khuzaymah (355) and Ibn Ḥibbān (544) are indeed continuous, passing from al-Shaʿbī to Masrūq to ʿĀʾishah, but in their isnād appears Maḥbūb ibn al-Ḥasan—this is a nickname; his given name is Muḥammad—about whom al-Ḥāfiẓ says in al-Taqrīb: “Reliable, though somewhat weak.”

Nor is the report strengthened by the corroboration of Bakkār ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn Sīrīn, cited by al-Bayhaqī (1/363), for he is extremely weak, as his biographical notices in al-Mīzān and al-Lisān clearly indicate.