347 – ʿĀʾishah (may Allah be pleased with her) said: “When the prayer was first made obligatory it consisted of two rakʿahs; the travel prayer was left as it was, while the resident prayer was completed.” Agreed upon.

Al-Bukhārī’s wording is: “Then he migrated, and it was prescribed as four rakʿahs, while the travel prayer remained in its original form.”

Aḥmad adds: “Except for Maghrib, for it is the day’s witr, and except for Fajr, for its recitation is lengthened.” (1)

– Vocabulary of the ḥadith –
• “Was prescribed” (furidat): farḍ in Arabic denotes an obligation; here it means that Allah made it binding upon His accountable servants.
• “The prayer”: i.e., the four-rakʿah prayers.
• “The resident prayer was completed”: its number was increased until it became four rakʿahs, so the increase relates to the number of units.
• “Was left” (uqirrat): Ibn Fāris notes that the root q-r-r has two authentic meanings, one of which signifies firmness or stability, which is the sense intended here. One says qarra and istaqarra. Al-Muḥīṭ states: “aqarrahu in the place, i.e., he fixed him there.” I say: hence the phrase uqirrat ṣalātu s-safar, meaning the travel prayer was maintained at two rakʿahs.
• “Awwal” (first): is nominative as the subject, while “two rakʿahs” serves as its predicate according to one of the two transmitted readings in