3 – This hadith is extremely weak. Ibn al-Qayyim relates: “I heard Shaykh al-Islām say, ‘It is a fabrication against the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.’” He then added the report attributed to ʿĀʾishah: that she performed ʿumrah with him ﷺ from Madinah to Mecca, after which she said, “O Messenger of Allah—may my father and mother be ransomed for you—I have sometimes completed the prayer and at other times shortened it, and I have at times broken my fast and at other times continued fasting.” He replied, “You have done well, O ʿĀʾishah.”
Our teacher Ibn Taymiyyah said, “This is false, for the Mother of the Believers would never oppose the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and all of his Companions by praying differently from them.”

4 – Shaykh al-Islām also said, “The Muslims have conveyed through uninterrupted mass transmission that the Prophet ﷺ never prayed more than two rakʿahs while traveling, and no one ever reported that he prayed four.”
Ibn al-Qayyim added, “It is not established that he ﷺ ever completed the four-rakʿah prayer while on a journey—ever.” Al-Bukhari (1102) and Muslim (689) record Ibn ʿUmar as saying, “I accompanied the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and he never prayed more than two rakʿahs while traveling; the same applied to Abu Bakr and ʿUmar.”
Al-Khattabi remarked, “The position of most early scholars and the jurists of the various cities is that shortening the prayer in travel is what is legislated. Thus the Muslims have agreed on the permissibility of shortening while differing over the permissibility of completing, because the Prophet ﷺ consistently shortened and no one ever transmitted that he prayed four rakʿahs while traveling.”