Allah knows best. All these transmission lines—definitively, or at the very least with predominant probability—show that the Prophet ﷺ entered the state of iḥrām after the prayer, after he had mounted his riding-beast, and once it had set out with him. Ibn ʿUmar adds in his version that he was facing the qiblah at the time.
Chapter
A detailed exposition of what the Prophet ﷺ declared in iḥrām during this Pilgrimage of his—whether it was Ifrād, Tamattuʿ, or Qirān
(The reports stating that the Prophet ﷺ performed Ifrād)
- The narration of ʿĀʾishah, Mother of the Believers
Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Idrīs al-Shāfiʿī said: “Mālik related to us, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Qāsim, from his father, from ʿĀʾishah, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ performed the Hajj singly (ifrād).”
Muslim also recorded it through Ismāʿīl, from Abū Uways, and through Yaḥyā ibn Yaḥyā, from Mālik. Imām Aḥmad transmitted it as well, through ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī, from Mālik with the same chain.
Aḥmad further said: “Isḥāq ibn ʿĪsā narrated to us; al-Munkadir ibn Muḥammad narrated to me, from Rabīʿah ibn Abī ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, from al-Qāsim ibn Muḥammad, from ʿĀʾishah, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ performed ifrād.”
Imām Aḥmad also said: “Suraij narrated to us; Ibn Abī al-Zinād narrated to us, from his father, from ʿUrwah, from ʿĀʾishah—and likewise through ʿAlqamah ibn Abī ʿAlqamah, from his mother, from ʿĀʾishah; and through Hishām ibn ʿUrwah, from his father, from ʿĀʾishah—that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ performed ifrād.” These routes are reported exclusively by Aḥmad from her.
He (Aḥmad) also said: “ʿAbd al-Aʿlā ibn Ḥammād narrated to me: I read before Mālik ibn Anas, from Abū’l-Aswad, from ʿUrwah, from ʿĀʾishah, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ performed ifrād.”
And he said: “Rawḥ narrated to us; Mālik related, from Abū’l-Aswad Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Nawfal—who had been an orphan reared in ʿUrwah’s household—from ʿUrwah ibn al-Zubayr, from ʿĀʾishah, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ performed ifrād.”