“Subhanaka Allahumma rabbana wa bi-hamdika, Allahumma ighfir li” (1).

Likewise, it is as though ʿĀʾishah and ʿUthman interpreted His words, “And when you are secure, then establish the prayer” (al-Nisaʾ 4:102), holding that to perform the prayer in full is part of establishing it.

Others have said that ʿĀʾishah reasoned that she was the Mother of the Believers, and that wherever their mother is, it is as though she is resident among them; and that ʿUthman, being the leader of the Muslims, would regard wherever he happened to be as his domicile. It was also suggested that he had resolved to settle permanently in Mina, or that he had taken up residence there—and whoever settles (2) in a town no longer carries the ruling of a traveller. Another view was that, because many Bedouins were present that season, he wished to teach them that the obligatory prayer consists of four rakʿahs. Other interpretations have likewise been offered—arguments thought to restrict the unqualified permission to shorten the prayer or to particularize its general import—yet all of them are weak.

The correct course is the practice of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ: he was the Imam of the Muslims, and ʿĀʾishah was the Mother of the Believers during his life and after his death, yet she shortened the prayer with him. Nor would ʿUthman have taken up residence in Mecca once he knew that “the Messenger of Allah ﷺ only granted permission there to the Emigrant (3) for three days after completing his rites” (4).

Furthermore, if a traveller marries while on the road, the mere act of marriage does not confer the ruling of residency upon him unless he firmly intends (5) to settle and to bring his journey to an end.

In sum, the interpretation that accords with the purport of the texts and with the sunnah