First, the ḥadith explicitly states that the Prophet ﷺ was seated in a spot where there was water and that he uncovered his knees. In other words, he was sitting with his legs dangling in the water. Had the knees been part of the ʿawrah, what conceivable excuse would there have been for uncovering them? Could he not have lowered only his shanks into the water without exposing anything unlawful?

This meaning is corroborated by Imam Aḥmad’s version, related through another chain from Abū Mūsā: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ was in an orchard in Madinah, sitting on the rim of a well—that is, the stone ledge built around it—dangling his legs when Abū Bakr knocked at the door…,” and so on.

Muslim likewise reports the incident through a third isnād with the wording: “He sat on its rim, uncovered his shanks, and let them hang down into the well.”

There is no contradiction between this wording and al-Bukhārī’s narration, which states plainly that he uncovered his knees, because the latter merely contains additional detail supplied by a trustworthy transmitter—an accepted principle. By the same token, there is no conflict between al-Bukhārī’s report and that of ʿĀʾishah and others declaring that he uncovered his thigh, provided the incident is the same; and if the incidents are separate, the issue disappears entirely.

Second, the fact that he covered himself in ʿUthmān’s presence was a special courtesy extended to him because of his exceptional modesty—just as, as noted earlier, the Prophet ﷺ covered his thighs before ʿUthmān. This in no way indicates that he covered them because they constitute ʿawrah. How could that be, when he uncovered them in front of others, as is clearly stated in the ḥadith of ʿĀʾishah and other reports, and as the wording itself makes manifest?